About that comeback: Nicolas Cage isn’t on board for his National Treasure return

We all know Nicolas Cage is reliably up for just about anything – he’s been famous since the 80s, and somehow still pops up in places you least expect. Over the last couple of years, he’s done everything from chewing the scenery as Dracula in Renfield, turning up in cult horror flick Longlegs, and even voicing a gruff detective Spider-Man in Spider-Noir. But for all his willingness to take on oddball roles, there’s one much-loved part he’s a bit more cagey about returning to: Benjamin Franklin Gates from the National Treasure films.

The National Treasure shuffle

The first National Treasure film landed in 2004, with Cage as a historian and code-breaker off to solve a Goonies-meets-Freemason mystery by way of stealing the Declaration of Independence. The sequel, Book of Secrets (2007), had Cage’s Gates trying to clear his family name after an ancestor was accused of being mixed up in Lincoln’s assassination. Neither outing wowed the critics, but – as usual – that hasn’t stopped them from getting a fond afterlife. Rumours of a National Treasure 3 have done the rounds for ages, occasionally stirred up by returning director Jon Turteltaub dropping hints that it was happening – and that Cage would be back.

Speaking at New York Comic Con, Cage ribbed those reports: "Jonathan Turteltaub, he gets a microphone in his hand and he goes to Philadelphia and says, ‘We’re doing National Treasure 3, and Nic’s coming.' I’m like, ‘No, I didn’t sign up for that.' You got to get these microphones out of these directors’ hands."

Is Nic actually interested?

Now, before you dash your hopes entirely, Cage isn’t shutting the door firmly, just not making any promises. He did say, ‘We’ll see if I want to get together with it’. And because it wouldn’t be Cage without a swerve, he even tossed out a completely ludicrous plot concept on the panel: that Ben Gates should 'go after the Epstein files' for a third film. Yes, as in Jeffrey Epstein. Not exactly what Disney probably has in mind for a family caper, but it’s pure Cage to chuck a grenade like that into the chat.

• The original National Treasure debuted in 2004
• Rumours of a third film have floated for years, but nothing confirmed (especially not by Cage)
• Cage remains open, but not committed—and seems to enjoy winding people up with improbable sequel ideas

National Treasure hit cinemas in 2004 and the sequel followed three years later, but there’s still no solid green light for part three in 2026.

For the record, Cage also let slip at the same Comic Con panel that he might crop up in the next series of True Detective, which would be its own kind of wild. While National Treasure 3 is still more pub gossip than actual production, Cage is next due out as legendary American football coach John Madden in Madden, set to open in cinemas on 11 November.