For nearly two decades, fans of the action-adventure genre have held onto a single, burning question: Where is National Treasure 3?

But is the third movie actually happening? Here is everything we know about the current status, the plot rumors, and why Disney has taken so long to crack this historical code. Let’s rewind. At the end of Book of Secrets , Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage), Riley Poole (Justin Bartha), and Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger) discover a secret presidential book hidden inside a Native American tribe’s treasure. They also find a missing page from John Wilkes Booth’s diary—a page that allegedly points to the greatest treasure in human history.

It’s a movie where the hero solves a 200-year-old riddle using a pair of glasses and a $2 bill. The stakes are high, but the tone is warm. We need Ben Gates fumbling through a secret tunnel while Riley cracks sarcastic jokes from a laptop van. I’d put the odds at 60/40 .

The film ends with Ben looking at the camera and saying, "We need to steal a book... the one book that no one can steal."

The window is closing. Nicolas Cage is 60 years old, and while he’s still in great shape, a high-action treasure hunt requires stamina. However, with the recent success of legacy sequels like Top Gun: Maverick and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny , Disney sees the dollar signs.

Until then, keep your eyes on the back of the Declaration of Independence. The treasure is still out there.