The new characters in National Treasure: Edge of History are the stars, but the series does feature a few familiar faces for fans of the Nicolas Cage-starring movies. Zuri Reed and Lyndon Smith said seeing the original character names pop up in the script felt like they were “blessing” their show. Jerry Bruckheimer and director Jon Turteltaub are also executive producers on the Disney+ show.
During the series premiere, fans will immediately get to see living legend Harvey Keitel return as Peter Sandusky, while Justin Bartha appears in a couple of episodes later as Riley Poole. Armando Riesco is back as FBI Agent Hendricks, who proves to be a mentor for Smith’s FBI Agent Ross. Fans will also get a kick out of hearing mentions of Cage’s character Ben Gates.
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“Zuri was a huge fan of the movies as a kid. I came into them a little bit later, but to have Justin around Harvey around, Armando Riesco around… to have those OG members, it’s like, ‘Ah, they’re blessing our show,’” Smith said. She added that seeing Ben’s name in the scripts was “such a tease.” Reed later chimed in that you can “never say never” about Cage potentially making an appearance in the show.
Reed stars as Tasha Rivers, the closest friend Jess Valenzuela (Lisette Olivera) has. The two are inseparable, and Tasha is always looking out for Jess’ safety. Jess also wants to join the FBI to put her puzzle-solving skills to good use. Tasha thinks the FBI is the “worst thing ever” though, notes Reed.
The FBI is “always listening and they’re sneaky and they want you to fail, so having them on the two opposite sides of that spectrum obviously causes some disagreements over the journey,” Reed said. “However, Tasha is very much ride or die and willing to do anything to help her friends out. So, she is forced to reevaluate some of those beliefs that she holds so dear to her for the bigger picture, which is to help her friends for sure.”
The contrast between the two friends is on display in no greater spot than their first meeting with Ross. In Edge of History, Jess is searching for a treasure connected to a father she never knew, while black market treasure hunter Billie Pearce (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is on the trail. They eventually bring their findings to Ross, but Tasha does not want them to do so. The treasure hunt is personally exciting for the actors since they don’t know where things are going until they get the scripts, Smith noted.
“Even just as the actor, you’re reading these scripts and you don’t know what’s going to happen next,” Smith said. “We obviously had to wait weeks in between getting these scripts, so Lyndon was just excited to see how Ross was going to start fitting all of these puzzle pieces together and Ross is equally as excited to start fitting all these puzzle pieces together.”
“Art was imitating life the entire time,” Smith said. Even she is left wondering if her character is going to help Jess, Tasha, and their friends or mistake Billie as a good character. “She has to pick up all these breadcrumbs from very strange places and that was really exciting for Lyndon to piece together and Ross,” Smith said.
Baton Rouge was also a spectacular spot to film the show. Reed was “surprised” by the history they could take advantage of in the Louisiana capital city. “There’s these gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous buildings around where we were staying actually, which I didn’t really know was there, so to film there, it was awesome and it was just new,” she said of the city.
National Treasure: Edge of History will be released on Disney+ on Wednesdays, starting on Dec. 14 with the first two episodes. The show was created by Cormac and Marianne Wibberley, who also serve as executive producers with Bruckheimer, Turteltaub, and Mira Nair.
