For nearly two decades, fans of a franchise built on hidden history and American mythology have held a question in common — and in August, at a gathering in Philadelphia, that question found its answer. Director Jon Turteltaub announced that National Treasure 3 is real, scripted, and will return Nicolas Cage to the role of Benjamin Franklin Gates. The moment speaks to something enduring in popular culture: the stories that take root across generations do not simply fade — they wait, and eventually, they are answered.
'National Treasure 3' officially in development with Nicolas Cage, director confirms
The project is finally real, and there is already a script.
Mark
Why announce this at a fan event in Philadelphia rather than through a studio press release?
Mimi
Because Philadelphia is where the story lives. The first film is built around the city's history and monuments. Telling fans there, in person, is different from a corporate announcement. It says: we remember what you love about this.
Mark
What does it mean that there's already a script?
Mimi
It means someone has already done the hard work. This isn't a greenlit idea waiting for a writer. The story exists. That's the difference between "we're thinking about it" and "we're doing it."
Mark
Nicolas Cage has done a lot of different work in the past fifteen years. Why would he come back to this character?
Mimi
Benjamin Franklin Gates is a character audiences trust. He's not a role that demands reinvention. Cage can step back into it and the audience will follow. That's valuable in an industry where so much is uncertain.
Mark
What's the risk here?
Mimi
That nineteen years have passed. The world has changed. Audiences have changed. What worked in 2007 might feel dated now. Or the film might feel like it's chasing something that already happened, rather than creating something new.
Mark
Why does this matter beyond the people who loved the first two films?
Mimi
Because it tells you something about how Hollywood thinks. Legacy franchises still work. There's an audience for them. And if this one succeeds, you'll see more of them.
Le Pouls
- Years of fan speculation and franchise uncertainty ended in a single announcement at Philadelphia's National Treasure Weekend event.
- Director Jon Turteltaub confirmed not just intent but substance — a completed script already exists, moving the project well past the danger zone of development limbo.
- Nicolas Cage's return as Benjamin Franklin Gates anchors the project with the continuity audiences have been waiting for across nearly two decades.
- The choice to announce at a fan event rather than through trade press signals a deliberate effort to honor the community that kept the franchise alive.
- Production timelines and casting details remain unconfirmed, but the machinery of Hollywood is now engaged with something that was, until recently, only a rumor.
For nearly two decades, fans of a franchise built on hidden history and American mythology have held a question in common — and in August, at a gathering in Philadelphia, that question found its answer. Director Jon Turteltaub announced that National Treasure 3 is real, scripted, and will return Nicolas Cage to the role of Benjamin Franklin Gates. The moment speaks to something enduring in popular culture: the stories that take root across generations do not simply fade — they wait, and eventually, they are answered.
For years, the question lived in fan forums and convention hallways: would there be another National Treasure? In August, at Philadelphia's National Treasure Weekend, director Jon Turteltaub provided the answer with unusual finality. The third installment is not a vague possibility — it is happening, and a script already exists.
Turteltaub, who directed both previous films, confirmed that Nicolas Cage will return as Benjamin Franklin Gates, the obsessive historical treasure hunter who anchored the franchise through its first two chapters. His words were unambiguous: the project is finally real.
The timing carries weight. The original films, released in 2004 and 2007, have sustained a devoted following across two decades — kept alive not just by nostalgia but by successive generations discovering them through streaming. The gap has been long enough to build genuine hunger.
Turteltaub's choice to make the announcement at a fan-centered event in Philadelphia — a city woven into the franchise's mythology — was deliberate. He was not speaking to industry trades. He was speaking to the people who never stopped waiting.
What remains unknown is when cameras might roll, who else might join the cast, and what the story actually holds. But the essential fact is established: National Treasure 3 has crossed from the territory of hope into the territory of logistics. For a franchise that has always been about the thrill of discovery, the announcement itself is the first clue.
For years, fans of the National Treasure franchise have asked the same question in forums and at conventions: is there going to be another one? The answer, it turns out, has been waiting in a drawer. At Philadelphia's National Treasure Weekend event in August, director Jon Turteltaub stepped forward with news that silenced the speculation. National Treasure 3 is not in some vague development limbo. It is not a maybe. It is happening, and there is already a script.
Turteltaub, who directed both previous films in the series, made the announcement with the kind of finality that comes from months or years of quiet work behind the scenes. Nicolas Cage, the actor who has carried the franchise through two films as Benjamin Franklin Gates—the obsessive treasure hunter at the heart of the story—will return for the third installment. The director's words were unambiguous: the project is "finally real."
The timing of the announcement matters. The National Treasure films, which began in 2004 and continued with a sequel in 2007, have maintained a devoted following across two decades. They occupy a particular space in American popular culture—adventure films that blend historical mystery with family-friendly action, the kind of movie that plays well in multiplexes and on streaming services alike. The gap between the second film and now has been long enough that an entire generation of younger viewers has discovered the franchise through home viewing, creating a kind of perpetual audience waiting for more.
Turteltaub's confirmation at a fan-focused event in Philadelphia—a city that figures prominently in the National Treasure mythology—was a deliberate choice. He was not announcing this to trade publications in a sterile press release. He was telling the people who have kept the franchise alive in their imaginations that their patience has been rewarded. The existence of a completed script suggests that this is not a project in its infancy, not something that might dissolve into development hell. Someone has already done the work of translating the concept into a story with scenes, dialogue, and structure.
What remains unclear is when production might begin, who else might be attached to the project, and what the script actually contains. Turteltaub did not provide those details. But the core fact is established: the third National Treasure film is moving from the realm of fan hope into the realm of Hollywood logistics. The machinery that turns scripts into finished films is now, presumably, beginning to engage.
For Cage, who has spent the intervening years working across a wide range of projects—some acclaimed, some less so—returning to Benjamin Franklin Gates represents a return to a character that audiences know and like. The role does not demand the kind of transformative performance that wins awards, but it does demand charm, intelligence, and the ability to carry an audience through elaborate set pieces and historical puzzles. Cage has proven he can do this.
The announcement also signals something broader about the current state of Hollywood. Legacy franchises remain valuable. Studios continue to believe that audiences want more of the stories they grew up with, and the evidence suggests they are often right. Whether National Treasure 3 will satisfy the appetite that fans have built over nearly two decades, or whether it will feel like a belated attempt to recapture something that belonged to a different moment, remains to be seen. For now, the franchise has moved from rumor to reality, and that alone is enough to set the conversation in motion.
Citations marquantes
The project is finally real and we have a script ready— Director Jon Turteltaub
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