One of Hollywood’s biggest franchises is getting the television treatment, as National Treasure: Edge of History breezes into the universe this week.
The series is a continuation of the movies, with a talented cast that brings the new adventure to life. The lively Lyndon Smith is one of the franchise’s new faces, and she brings a wonderful spirit to the role of Agent Ross.
TV Fanatic had a spirited chat with Lyndon ahead of the premiere as we picked her brain about all things National Treasure. So, be sure to check it out and then dive into the fantastic new series on Disney+.
I’m excited to talk to you about National Treasure. I got a chance to watch the first few episodes, and I enjoyed it.
Oh, nice.
What I liked most about it was that I hadn’t seen the movies in a while, but that didn’t really matter. I felt like I could still jump into it, fully understand what was going on, and get into it. It’s been a while since I saw the movie, so I liked that.
Yeah. Because it’s an expansion and not just a reboot, you don’t have to know everything. If you have seen the movies and the world, you kind of get some good fan service because of that, seeing some of the old characters, and there’s like all those Easter eggs in there.
But because of the new group, you definitely don’t have to have seen the movies.
Exactly. So for our readers here at TV Fanatic, can you tell us about National Treasure: Edge of History and your character FBI Agent Ross?
Yeah, so as I mentioned, we’re expanding the universe and essentially opening it back up. It’s not a reboot. We’re not trying to replace anything that happened. It’s just time that we continued the story. So our show follows just a new group of treasure hunters. They’re younger, so you get it from that young, more diverse perspective.
It’s been modernized. We use different types of technology to find the treasure and things like that. And along the way, similar to how Harvey Keitel played the FBI agent chasing Ben Gates, I kind of get to fill those shoes as Agent Ross chasing Jess Valenzuela and her friends.
Initially, Agent Ross shows up in Baton Rouge because she was fired from her DC office. She had just graduated from Quantico. She was top of her class and given this really high-profile assignment, and she made a mistake. So they said, “We’re kicking you down to Louisiana.”
She shows up in this office and has to essentially rebuild her professional reputation. And then, on the first day, Jess and Tasha show up with this crazy story about a treasure and this kidnapping.
And she thinks she’s being hazed, so she kind of kicks them out to the curb and then takes a step back and wonders, “Well, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe there’s more to this.”
But then, at the same time, if you’re trying to rebuild your professional career, maybe this is not the first case you would take, something about a treasure. And her boss is telling her, “Don’t follow this lead,” but she just goes rogue and, along the way, realizes that maybe these kids aren’t criminals.
She goes from foe to ally. And that’s kind of her trajectory over the season.
We talked about the movies a little bit, but how familiar were you with them heading into this project?
It’s so funny. The cast ragged me for this because I was the one who had not seen the movie. I knew what they were, of course. Everybody knew what National Treasure was, but I guess around that time, it was a blank spot. So when I got the job, I was like, “All right, let’s sit down and watch these.”
I was curious, are they going to hold up? I mean, it’s been 15 years since the last one, and I loved them. I was like, “These are delightful.” And I loved how multi-generational they are. I mean, kids to grandparents loved them when they came out.
And then, even when I told people I got this job, family members of all ages were like, “Oh my gosh, National Treasure. We love it. We love it.” So I didn’t even realize how vast of a fanbase the franchise had. So I wasn’t familiar with them very well going into it. And now I’ve been properly schooled.
I think it’s interesting too because you know at least something from the movies. They’re talking about the Statue of Liberty. They’re talking about the Liberty Bell or all these different things that you know. So, it’s World history and American history, but it’s made to be really fun.
And it was also a lot of pieces of history that I didn’t know, which I thought was cool of the Wibberleys to incorporate because, yes, we know about the Statue of Liberty, but I didn’t know that there were multiple Statues of Liberty. If you remember from the first movie, there’s what, three of them? I had no idea. I didn’t know about the Resolute desk.
So I thought National Treasure, like the movies, did a great job explaining those little pieces of history that are a little bit more espionage in nature and made them fun. And then, in our season, we kind of pan out from just American history to Pan-American history.
There was an initiative to start incorporating other cultures and their history into our season, which I think is a brilliant way to expand. If you’re going to grow out the universe, expand out the history as well.
Were you someone growing up, or even in your adult life, that was interested and fascinated by history and different histories in the world?
I was really fascinated by European history when I was younger, not so much American history, but I was always fascinated with treasure. As a kid, I know it’s going to sound so silly, but my grandma’s house in Arkansas, I spent my summers on a cattle farm in Arkansas.
My grandma had this old house, and I used to go around and kick baseboards, thinking something would pop out and there would be a treasure. Or I would look for loose tiles.
My parents started traveling with my brother and I when we were really young. And I remember being in Europe in an old abbey and going around and looking to see if I could find holes in the floorboards. I don’t know why I’ve always been fascinated with this idea of finding treasure.
And as an adult, it’s lent itself to me becoming a very avid vintage hunter. I love to thrift. I love to go to flea markets. I go to swap meets. I love digging to find the thing that somebody didn’t know how valuable it was. I’ve been oddly obsessed with that my whole life.
Oh, I love that. You mentioned that National Treasure is a very successful franchise. So, what is it like stepping into that world? There are going to be new fans and new people watching. What’s it like stepping into the franchise?
It’s equal parts thrilling and terrifying because there is this existing fan base, and they’ve been waiting for so long for this story to continue. So you feel put a bit on a pedestal.
There’s just a lot of pressure to get it right. And I also know that even myself as a fan, if I’m going to reenter a universe after so long, I want as much fan service from that original idea as possible. And we have a lot of new faces. Yes, we are bringing back some beloved characters, but we’re essentially a full new group.
And that comes with a bit of an uphill climb.
You feel like you want to be like, “You guys, this is in good hands.” It’s in good hands, I promise. So I’m very, very excited to introduce people back into this world, hopefully, get a new audience as well as the people who loved it 15, 20 years ago. But yes, there’s pressure to get it right.
They’ve been waiting a long time, and we don’t want to disappoint them. So that was something that was always kind of in the back of our minds when we were making it.
I thought there was great chemistry with the cast. I was laughing a lot more than I thought. The National Treasures are very humorous, but I laughed out loud throughout these episodes.
Yeah, it’s so funny. There was always humor on the page, but the casting of the show, I thought, was just so brilliant. And they found these people to just click into these parts so well and elevate the humor off the page in an insane way. And everybody really, really did click immediately, especially the kids.
The younger kids all lived right by each other downtown. It was like going to summer camp. And then I was just so enamored with their energy and the life they brought to these characters. It was just a family immediately. It was interesting.
It’s not one of those jobs where you felt like you were clocking in and clocking out. It felt like very much a family getting together every day and making this. And that was top-down.
The Wibberleys had that attitude. And if your showrunners set the tone on a set, that trickles down. The crew loved being there. Everyone was happy. There was never a bad day of work that I can recall. And I don’t know how many projects I’ve been a part of that were like that.
So yes, the chemistry was there because everybody was happy to go to work, and I’m so glad it shows on screen. But I think that’s such an intangible quality. When people genuinely like each other, it does come across.
When you were reading the part, what attracted you to the role of Agent Ross? And did you find that you had any similarities or differences with the character?
I feel like she’s a pretty direct extension of myself. And I saw that on the page. Also, I grew up loving the X-Files, and Agent Scully was always the coolest character to me.
So when I read Agent Ross, I was like, “Oh my gosh, would this be my Scully moment? All the pants suits, I can’t wait.” But I love that she’s a very type-A, dogged investigator.
Lyndon is very type-A. I wake up, and I make a list every single day. My mom instilled that in me when I was young. I’m hyper-focused on details, and I love accomplishing a goal and am just very, very driven. And that is Ross’s entire backbone. So I was like, “This is me on the page.”
But what makes her so interesting and good at her job is that she can balance that with understanding people.
She has a lot of heart to her, and she understands that life is full of nuance and layers. And yes, I can see the facts on the page, but I’m also going to listen to the person talking to me. And I don’t think she has ever let that human side of her slip away within all of her work.
And because she can balance the human side of the job and the facts, I think that’s why she’s so successful. So it was really cool for me to read this very formed, fleshed-out female character who was excellent at her job and also gets people.
I think that’s why she ultimately can take a step back and have the emotional intelligence to go, “I think I’m wrong about Jess and Tasha. I think I need to listen to these girls and their crazy story.”
That is how she develops through the season. And if she didn’t have that balance, you wouldn’t have the character or the story that we have. So that’s what immediately flew off the page and smacked me in the face. I was like, “It’s myself, but maybe nicer.”
What is something that you hope ultimately that audiences are able to take away from the series? Because it’s about treasure hunting, but there’s a lot more going on there as well.
Yeah, I think the heart and soul of National Treasure is the history, right? I mean, that’s the central character of the entire franchise. We have these awesome characters, fun treasure hunts, and all the action, romance, and humor. But the star is the history.
And I think what made National Treasure so successful in the first place was that parents wanted their kids to maybe learn something, and then the parents were having a great time. And I hope people can gather around the TV this holiday season and escape into something that’s fun.
It’s lighthearted, and it’s really wonderful popcorn TV watching. And you also learn something about other cultures and history and maybe get a broader perspective of the world.
And I love the idea that, especially right now in time, we’re reopening this franchise because history’s being made every second. So if we think of that, there should always be a place for National Treasure because there’s always a time to present history to people. And what better way to do it than give them a mystery and a scavenger hunt?
So I hope people just enjoy it, get to watch it with their families, learn something and have a great time.
If you could describe the first season in three words, what would those be?
Oh, it would be captivating, epic, and hilarious.
I like those words. That’s good. That’s good. That definitely covers the first couple of episodes.
Yeah. And gosh, there’s nowhere to go but up. It ramps so quickly. Episode nine, in particular, is my favorite. I love a penultimate episode because you always get the crazy cliffhanger. Our episode nine is explosive. I remember I read the last page, and there’s something that happens directly with my character in that episode.
And I was screaming at my computer, reading it.
And the next day, I go to work, and I go up to the Wibberleys, and I was like, “How could you have kept this from me? How could you not have told me this?” And then I found out that there were a few key people who knew, and they were all keeping it a secret from me.
I was like, “You have sold me a crock of lies. How could you not tell me this?” And everybody was cracking up. Episode nine is so wild and such a ride. I can’t wait for you to see that one.
It’s like a mini-movie in each episode because we have 10 hours to expand this story out. So it is like ten little mini-movies. At the end, I was like, “I have to know what happens next.”
And then likewise, when I was reading the scripts, I was like, “I have to wait two more weeks to get another script. I want to figure out what’s happening. I want to figure out these clues along the way.”
Exactly. Right?
Yeah, it’s such a good time.
What TV series are you currently enjoying? And if you have any go-to series when you’re like, you just need to put this show on and watch it to unwind at the end of the day. What are those series for you?
Oh, I’m currently midway through the new season of The Crown. And as soon as we get off the phone, I will continue. And then honestly, oh my gosh, one of my favorite shows in recent memory or current shows going on right now, Severance, Succession, House of Dragon.
Oh my gosh, House of Dragon season one. I was devastated when it ended. I cannot believe I have to wait two more years. I’m really, really heartbroken over that.
But the things that I put on every day, or if I’m cleaning the house, I watch a lot of old Disney movies. I was dusting yesterday and put Beauty and the Beast on. Or the Frozen movies and Moana are on in the background a lot. I was such a Disney kid growing up. I’m from Florida, so the Mouse has always been king.
So a lot of old classic Disney movies are consistently on my TV, like a screensaver.
***This interview has been edited for length and clarity.***
National Treasure: Edge of History airs Wednesdays on Disney+.
Whitney Evans is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.
