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How To Train Your Dragon 3 Gets An Official Title
How To Train Your Dragon 3 has been afforded an official title, as announced by Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation. Kicking off in 2010, the How To Train Your Dragon movies are loosely based on the Cressida Cowell books of the same name and have proved to be critical and commercial successes for DreamWorks in a field largely dominated by Pixar. HTTYD tells the story of Hiccup, a small and unassuming boy who eventually teaches his village full of tough, dragon-killing Vikings to train and befriend the mythical beasts instead of slaughtering them. A sequel followed in 2014 which expanded Hiccup’s fictional world, introducing more tribes, more dragons, and more fantastical locations.
A third, concluding installment was naturally planned but a series of setbacks have seen the release date of How To Train Your Dragon 3 slide from June 2016 to March 2019, although the delay has been caused more by corporate issues than creative ones. The core cast and crew from the first two movies will be returning for this third offering and F. Murray Abraham has been cast as new arch villain, Grimmel. Little else is currently known about HTTYD3 other than the appearance of a love interest for Hiccup’s dragon, Toothless.
However, DreamWorks Animation have now finally unveiled the official title for How To Train Your Dragon 3, which is How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. In a statement, DreamWorks also confirmed that the March 1, 2019 release date is still in place. A short preview of the threequel is set to be screened at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival this June. The official synopsis reads:
As Hiccup fulfills his dream of creating a peaceful dragon utopia, Toothless’ discovery of an untamed, elusive mate draws the Night Fury away. When danger mounts at home and Hiccup’s reign as village chief is tested, both dragon and rider must make impossible decisions to save their kind.
As titles go, The Hidden World doesn’t give an awful lot away and sounds like a fairly standard fantasy movie subtitle. However, the phrase does perhaps provide a hint as to where the new villain Grimmel will come from. Alternatively, How To Train Your Dragon 2 saw Hiccup and Toothless venture out from their hometown of Berk to discover and map new lands. Perhaps the young Viking Chief is balancing his duties as leader of the village with his desire for adventure and stumbles across something momentous, similar to how events unfold in film two.
More often than not, animated sequels fail to live up to their predecessors but there’s plenty of reason to believe that How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World will buck that trend. Not only are the bulk of the cast and crew returning but writer and director Dean DeBlois has previously suggested that HTTYD had a part three planned well in advance. This means that DreamWorks aren’t simply churning out another sequel to milk the franchise dry but are genuinely looking to advance and develop characters and plot threads from previous movies.
KEY RELEASE DATES
How to Train Your Dragon 3 release date: Mar 1, 2019
