Lock up your daughters/foundational documents of state: The National Treasure franchise is coming back, and this time it’s skewing young. This is per Collider, which recently had a sit-down with National Treasure series producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Amidst questions about his new Starz show Hightown, Bruckheimer also confirmed that, yes, National Treasure 3 is currently being written—with Bad Boys For Life screenwriter Chris Bremner still penning a new adventure for Nic Cage’s Benjamin Franklin Gates—but that that’s also not the only hot NT project in the works.
Yes, the only film franchise willing to base large swathes of its plot around investigating Rutherford B. Hayes’ old desk may soon be moving to the small screen, with Bruckheimer announcing that a television version of the series is currently “in process,” with an eye toward landing at Disney+. (Disney produced both National Treasure movies.) Also, the show would not focus on Cage’s Gates, instead offering “a much younger cast. It’s the same concept but a young cast.”
And honestly: We’re into it. After all, an episodic structure would massively accelerate the number of American historical artifacts that the show’s tween treasure hunters might be able to steal, meaning we could finally get episodes where they steal the deed to Mount Vernon, the gun from the Alexander Hamilton/Aaron Burr duel, and hey, maybe Archie Bunker’s old chair from the Smithsonian. (“A fat racist once sat here,” the heroes will breathlessly inform each other. “He abused his stepson so badly that he eventually directed the movie North.”)
This is all, obviously, extremely early days, with Disney having so far not given any public sign of acknowledging either project. Still, Bruckheimer has a lot of industry oomph—and National Treasure remains one of those indelible light-action franchises, like Brendan Fraser’s Mummy movies, that have a stranglehold on the lazy nostalgic afternoons of adults of a certain age. Given how carefully Disney+ has mined its libraries while hunting around for new projects to develop, it’s not hard to see this getting the green light.