The National Treasure movie franchise featuring Nicholas Cage in the lead role is a much-loved action-adventure movie franchise. The franchise has two movies in it— the brain-tickling puzzles and fascinating treasure quests depicted in the movies were indeed quite entertaining for the viewers.
As a follow-up to the franchise, the creators, Marianne Wibberley and Cormac Wibberley, bring to us a brand new television series titled National Treasure: Edge of History.
The series premiered exclusively on the Disney+ network with its two pilot episodes on December 14, 2022. The series has a brand new cast playing central characters along with some original cast from the movie franchise. Even though Nicholas Cage isn’t reprising his role in the series, we’ve got the likes of Justin Bartha and Harvey Keitel reprising their respective roles from the National Treasure movie franchise.
Although, according to the story so far, the sequences of the series take place in Louisiana and Mexico City, viewers might be wondering whether the series was shot in real locations or not. Well, we are here to help you all in knowing about the real filming locations of the latest Disney+ show, National Treasure: Edge of History.
National Treasure: Edge of History Plot
The new show centers around the character of Jess Valenzuela, played by Lisette Olivera. Jess has gifted puzzle-solving abilities, and she hopes to join the cryptanalysis department of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) one day. She is from New Orleans and belongs to a family of secretive treasure protectors. She discovers the existence of Montezuma’s gold, an undiscovered lost treasure.
She embarks on a journey along with her friends to find the lost treasure, which marks the beginning of their adventure. During her quest to find the lost treasure, she uncovers several facts about her family and their long-term ties with the treasure. Besides the group of youngsters led by Jess, another group is also looking for the lost treasure for personal profit. The antagonist group is led by Billie Pearce, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones.
National Treasure Edge: of History (Courtesy Disney+)
The encounters between the two groups and the gradual uncovering of Jess’s family history form the basic plotline of the show. Three episodes of the show have aired so far, and seven more episodes are yet to be released.
Where Was National Treasure: Edge of History filmed?
Just dropping these BTS gems here from the set of National Treasure: Edge of History. 💎 (1/3) pic.twitter.com/oSCeSTkaPY
— Disney+ (@DisneyPlus) December 21, 2022
The show has been filmed in multiple real-life locations. The initial preparation for filming took off in February 2022. The filming of sequences in Mexico started in June 2022.
As the story of the series starts in Louisiana, many sequences were shot in the original location too. Filming of major sequences was carried out in the state of Louisiana. We get glimpses of famous landmarks like Baton Rouge, the USS KIDD Veterans Museum, Squeaky Pete’s country bar, dance hall, the old Governor’s Mansion, and several others during the running minutes. The Celtic Media Centre film studio house was used for some of the indoor sequences too. Other filming locations include Santa Fe and other areas of New Mexico City, Mexico.
National Treasure: Edge of History Cast
Lisette Olivera
Lisette Olivera as Jess Valenzuela (Courtesy Disney+)
Lisette Olivera plays the central character of Jess Valenzuela in the show. She is a young gifted puzzle solver and aspires to join the FBI one day. She has a keen interest in treasures and the mysteries that surround them. She belongs to a family that has a long history of being secret members of treasure protectors. She uncovers the secret of her family only when she embarks on a quest to find the lost treasure of Montezuma.
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Catherine Zeta-Jones as Billie Pearce (Courtesy Disney+)
Catherine acts as the main antagonist of the show, Billie Pearce. She leads a group that is also searching for the lost treasure of Montezuma. She is a dealer of antique artifacts in the black market, and she’d go up to any limits to retrieve the lost treasure.
Justin Bartha
Justine Bartha as Riley Poole (Courtesy Disney+)
Justine Bartha reprises his original role from the National Treasure movie Riley Poole in the series. He was the technical genius who helped Nicholas Cage’s character Benjamin Gates in the previous treasure quests portrayed in the movies. Seeing him playing his previous role again in the show was much loved by the viewers of the show.
Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel as Agent Peter Sadusky (Courtesy Disney+)
Harvey Keitel also returns for the latest show to reprise his role of Agent Peter Sadusky. In the movies, he and Benjamin always encounter each other occasionally when Peter used to confront Benjamin for the crimes he had committed as a treasure hunter. Harvey did a solid job in the movies, and we can hope that he does the same in the show too.
National Treasure: Edge of History Reviews
National Treasure Edge: of History (Courtesy Disney+)
Only three episodes of the show have aired so far. The predecessor of the show, the two National Treasure movies, were both commercially and critically successful movies of their time. But the reception for the brand new show continuing the same story has been somewhat average, if not bad.
While viewers are interested in the show because of the popular back story of the movies, critics seem to be not much impressed by the new venture. The show has a 4.6 rating on the IMDb website and a 44% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
