Our first look at Disney’s upcoming National Treasure TV series is here, and there’s not a Nicolas Cage in sight. 2004’s National Treasure and its 2007 follow-up National Treasure: Book of Secrets are two of the legendary actor’s many cult-favorite films, but despite their popularity, the studio has let the franchise flounder for the past 15 years. Until now, that is, as a relaunch is finally on its way in the form of a sequel show headed to Disney Plus that’s set to feature a new band of treasure hunters.
As revealed at Disney’s Annual Shareholders Meeting today, this first glimpse at the National Treasure series (which you can catch via the gallery below) introduces us to four of the show’s leads in what looks to be a pretty alarming situation, as the quartet are dressed in prison jumpsuits and stuck in a single jail cell together, with the tally marks on the wall telling us they’ve been there a while.
The series focuses on Lisette Alexis (second from left in the above photo) as Jess Morales, a 20-year-old DREAMer who sets off to discover the mystery of her family history, and with the help of her friends, seeks to recover lost historical treasure. Alexis is joined by Lyndon Smith, Zuri Reed (second from right), Jake Austin Walker, Antonio Cipriano (first on the right), and Jordan Rodrigues. Catherine Zeta-Jones is also on board as veteran treasure hunter Billie, so it sounds like she’s filling the Nic Cage role, to some extent.
Jerry Bruckheimer is producing the series, and Mira Nair (Queen of Katwe) helmed the pilot. National Treasure started filming last month, so don’t expect to see too much more of the show just yet. It’s expected to eventually emerge on Disney Plus sometime in mid-2023. It promises to be a fun action-adventure series, but will it ever be able to top Cage announcing he’s going to steal the Declaration of Independence? Only time will tell.
