The guy from the National Treasure movies (no, the other guy) will be in the Disney Plus series
Justin Bartha, who played Riley Poole in the movies, will make an appearance in the show
We’ve known since last year that Disney+ was making a new National Treasure TV show without original film series star Nicolas Cage, but now we know at least one familiar face who’ll be stopping by to uncover some more historically significant artifacts—and it’s thankfully not right-wing creep Jon Voight, who should not be trusted anywhere near a heist at the National Archives building when it’s so close to the Capitol. Anyway, we’re talking about Justin Bartha, the other guy from the National Treasure movies.
Bartha played squirrelly tech guy Riley Poole in the movies, offering a quippier, youthful energy to counter… you know, Nicolas Cage’s whole thing, and The Hollywood Reporter says he’ll be reprising his role in the series in a “guest star” capacity. Up until now, Disney has been a little quiet on how, if at all, the series would connect to the movies, saying it’s an “expansion” of the series rather than a reboot or sequel, but the inclusion of Riley at least establishes some kind of connective tissue between this and the movies (which means Cage could show up at some point too, but since this is on Disney+, he’ll probably just be a CG creature who looks worse and worse the more they show him).
Aside from Bartha, the National Treasure show will star Lisette Alexis as a “brilliant and resourceful DREAMer” named Jess, with Catherine Zeta-Jones playing a billionaire who is probably a bad guy. Zuri Reed, Jordan Rodrigues, Antonio Cipriano, Jake Austin Walker, and Lyndon Smith will also be there, joining Jess on her quest to recover a “lost Pan-American treasure” and learn about a mysterious family secret.
There’s no word on when the show will premiere, but it’s currently filming, so it might be a bit (not only do they have to finish filming, but they have to find a computer that can handle making a CG Nicolas Cage).