The plot of the films and books centers around the Gates family – treasure hunters who search for and preserve lost valuables from the history of the United States of America – while the TV series references this background and features some common characters.

[11] The film was met with positive response from audiences and made significant ticket revenue at the box office, and profit then and from further distribution for The Walt Disney Company.

His grandfather teaches him that the men and women of American history buried the treasure somewhere within the country and have hidden highly cryptic clues throughout various lands within the nation's borders.

In a race to find the historical discovery and to preserve it in a national museum, Ben must outpace the villainous plans of his former associate-turned-enemy named Ian Howe.

Competing scavenger Mitch Wilkinson claims that he has learned from a fragment of a missing page of John Wilkes Booth's diary, that the Gates family ancestor was a conspirator to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

Outraged by his familial claims Ben, his ex-girlfriend Abigail, and his best friend Riley (who has become a famous writer), travel the globe to France, England, and Washington, D.C., where their plans escalate.

[18] In May 2008, director and producer Jon Turteltaub stated that the filmmakers involved with the series will take their time in developing another National Treasure sequel.

[32] However, in an interview with National Treasure Hunt Podcast (May 29), Director Jon Turteltaub stated the movie was "100% going ahead with the original cast, with potential for previous adversaries to return".

The series follows a Hispanic Latina-American lead character named Jess Valenzuela, who is a 20-year-old DREAMer who sets off on an exploration to discover the mystery of her family history, and with the help of her friends seeks to recover historical lost treasure.

In January 2022, Lyndon Smith, Zuri Reed, Jake Austin Walker, Antonio Cipriano, and Jordan Rodrigues were announced to have been cast as FBI Agent Ross, Tasha, Liam, Oren, and Ethan, respectively.

[37] In September 2022, the showrunners/creators stated that they have tentative plans for reintroducing additional characters from the films into the series, including Nicolas Cage's Ben Gates.

The duo compared the meeting between Valenzuela and Gates to Tony Stark / Iron Man and Peter Parker / Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.