Why didn’t National Treasure 3 happen sooner? Disney didn’t think of it as a franchise

The National Treasure movies were very popular, but it’s taken over a decade for Disney to give us more. Why? Producer Jason Reed explains:

National Treasure is one of those franchises that often gets overlooked. It’s a gem of a Disney series, fun for both history buffs and because it’s just a good watch. The whole idea of a treasure hunt involving these iconic tourist locations is just crazy enough to work.

And yet, we haven’t heard much about National Treasure since the sequel bowed in 2007. Earlier this year, executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer gave us a glimmer of hope when he said that there’s a National Treasure Disney+ series in the works, plus a third movie.

That’s great news, but why did it take so long? Jason Reed, who worked on both National Treasure movies as a Production Executive, told Collider why he thought Disney dragged its feet, and it makes a lot of sense:

"What I felt happened is even though the movies were extremely successful and had a really strong fanbase, it’s a movie that gets brought up all the time, the company was never able to capitalize on it as a franchise. It was more of a movie with a sequel and National Treasure 3 would have been another sequel."

In other words, Disney didn’t think of National Treasure as a franchise. Since then, the company has had huge success with the Star Wars and Marvel franchises, so if the National Treasure movies had been made today and found similar success, things probably would have been different.

National Treasure was also never incorporated into Disney theme parks, or widely merchandised. It just didn’t get the royal treatment it deserved. “It never caught on, even though there were a lot of consumer products, it never caught on as an independent franchise,” Reed continued. “That makes the numbers look different. It makes it harder to make a company like Disney focus resources on something when they can go make Toy Story or buy a cruise ship. And if the company itself had been really excited about moving forward with it and thought they could blow it out, we would have found a way to make the deal.”

Bruckheimer’s comments earlier this year have certainly given me hope as a National Treasure fan. If I had to pick between a movie or a TV show, I’d definitely want the movie, but hopefully I can have both.

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h/t SYFY Wire