The National Treasure world is getting much bigger with National Treasure: Edge of History. A young woman’s life is turned upside down when she learns of a clue to a centuries-old treasure that might be connected to her long-dead father. Jess Valenzuela and her friends set out on a journey to find history’s greatest lost treasure and family secrets. HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with Zuri Reed and Lyndon Smith about where they fit in this epic world.
“I play Tasha Rivers, who is a very tech-savvy, young, social media star,” Zuri told HollywoodLife. “She runs a platform where she teaches her audience on internet privacy. She’s very much ‘the government is always listening’ type of person. So with that being said, she’s very anti-FBI. She is Jess’ best friend/roommate, who is very for the FBI. Actually, Jess’ goal is to be a part of the FBI, so Tasha has to reevaluate her own beliefs to help her best friend, but it’s kind of no problem because she’s that type of person. She’s always going to do whatever it takes to help the people that she loves.”
As for Lyndon, Agent Ross is on a completely different journey, but she winds up crossing paths with Jess, Tasha, and their crew. Lyndon will also be connected to an original character in the National Treasure franchise.
“Our show National Treasure: Edge of History is such an expansion of that original franchise,” Lyndon explained. “You do have those original characters, one of them being Harvey Keitel. In the original movies, he’s the FBI agent, as we all know, hunting Ben Gates. So Agent Ross essentially gets to step into that role and be the Harvey Keitel to now Jess’ Ben Gates. So they come in with this crazy story about a treasure kind of kidnapping. I don’t know who’s friend or foe or if any of this is actually true. Agent Ross kind of gets to go on her own hunt to figure out what’s going on. Should we trust them? Is she going to ultimately become an ally? So that’s kind of how she fits in. Time will tell.”
Lyndon stressed that there will “absolutely” be Easter eggs and nods to the original movies. “We’re in the world. We’re not recreating this thing. They’re all still there,” Lyndon said. “So I dare to say in every episode, OG fans will get a little bit of service, be it from a character that’s returning… There’s some that are like throughline Easter eggs that you need to be a diehard fan, but if you can pick up on it, you’re going to be a few steps ahead of everybody else.”
The world is much different than it was when the last National Treasure movie was released in 2007. Zuri noted that National Treasure: Edge of History reflects the time the characters are now living in. The actress said Tasha is “able to bring new technology and new ways of hacking and cracking codes and breaking down walls that didn’t really exist like that when Nic Cage was running around Philadelphia. We’re able to make it more modern with the tech now and some other little cool factors along the way for sure.”
Jess and her crew, as well as Agent Ross, will have interesting dynamics with the enigmatic Billie Pearce, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones. “It’s a cat-and-mouse game for Agent Ross and Billie,” Lyndon teased. “Agent Ross is asking herself the same question. Who is this Billie person? Why does she keep crossing my desk? Why is she somehow getting intertwined in this? At first, all eyes are on Jess and Tasha, and then why does this Billy person keep coming across? There’s got to be something there. So Agent Ross is figuring out if she’s friend or foe.” New episodes of National Treasure: Edge of History will drop Wednesdays on Disney+.