The upcomingHow To Train Your Dragonfilm is already guaranteed to have a sequel, creating the impression that both of the original movie’s follow-ups could get their own live-action adaptations as well. That’s not surprising, at least in regards to theconfirmation of a live-actionHow To Train Your Dragon 2, considering that the second movie is an excellent follow-up to an incredible film.
WhileHow To Train Your Dragon 2might have managed to live up to the original in some ways, the new live-action remake has an uphill battle to prove its worth,though first reactions toHow To Train Your Dragonhave been positive. The success of the live-action remake could impact the direction of its sequel.How To Train Your Dragon’s live-action adaptation has to be careful when balancing changes to the story with faithfulness to the original, but a live-actionHow To Train Your Dragon 2has the additional challenges of being both a live-action remake and a sequel, which are two things that audiences often expect the worst from.
How To Train Your Dragon 2 Should Be An Original Story, Not An Adaptation Of The 2014 Movie
The First Live-Action Being A Close Remake Doesn’t Mean The Sequels Have To Be
Between the films, television shows, holiday specials, video games, and even the books that the movies were inspired by, the world ofHow To Train Your Dragonhas been used to tell many stories. There’s no doubt that 2014’sHow To Train Your Dragon 2is one of its best, butthere are many other stories that a live-actionHow To Train Your Dragon 2could tell instead.
“Hopefully We Get Away With [It]”: How To Train Your Dragon’s Live-Action Toothless Kept 1 Key Element Of His Animated Design Despite It Being Totally Unrealistic
The director of the live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon Dean DeBlois kept one unrealistic, iconic element of Toothless for the film.
Telling a new story withHow To Train Your Dragon 2could also allow them to take advantage of the fact thatGerard Butler is returning to the world ofHow To Train Your Dragonas Stoick the Vast. As Stoick is killed in the originalHow To Train Your Dragon 2,telling an original story could allow them to carry Stoick’s character over into the third film. While changing the story would be removing one connection to the original animated film series, it would be preserving another connection.
IfHow To Train Your Dragon 2tells an original story,it could also pull more from the books that the animated films were originally inspired by. There are a lot of major differences between the books and the films, from Toothless' species of dragon to Astrid not appearing in the novels. There are also characters from the novels who never really appear in the animated franchise, so the live-action sequels could pull some additional inspiration from them.
The Biggest Problem With How To Train Your Dragon’s Live-Action Adaptation Is That It’s Telling The Same Story Too Soon
It’s Only Been 6 Years Since The Original Series Ended
It’s only been about fifteen years since the originalHow To Train Your Dragonwas released, soit doesn’t feel like there’s any reason for a remake to exist at this point. The last movie in the series,The Hidden World, was released only about six years ago. The films take place over the course of many years, so this could be used as an excuse to draw out the wait before creating sequels to the live-action film, but that does risk letting the hype of the first remake die down before sequels are considered.
How To Train Your Dragon’s Live-Action Remake Already Revealed How Its Improving Astrid
How to Train Your Dragon’s 2025 live-action remake is expanding on Astrid’s character, which highlights how the new film builds on the original.
It would be impossible not to compare the live-action remake with the originalHow To Train Your Dragon, and that will remain true for the sequels even if they tell an entirely different story. Telling a new story does run the risk of making audiences complain that they’re telling a worse story, but audiences are going to go in expecting to see a worse version of the animated movies regardless.
This would be true no matter how long it has been since the release of the original films, but they feel new enough that if people want to see a recent adaptation of the story of theHow To Train Your Dragonfilms, they’ll probably just go watch the animated ones.Telling a new story could offer the chance to dive deeper into the world ofHow To Train Your Dragonand could make the adaptation feel at least a little more worth it, even ifit’s still very early for aHow To Train Your Dragonadaptation.
It’s Easier To Do Something New With How To Train Your Dragon 2
The First Live Action Film Needs To Establish The Story Before It Can Be Changed
The new live-action remake is creating an opportunity for fans to visit an entirely new version of this world. The firstHow To Train Your Dragonestablished the series as a classic and one of Dreamworks' best, so it’s understandable for the live-action’s creators to want to stay close to the original.AdaptingHow To Train Your Dragonis riskybecause changing too much from the original film would feel like underutilizing a great story, while sticking too close might make fans question why they would choose to watch a remake over the original.
However, once the first live-action film has established the series, it leaves the creators of the live-action version of the franchise a lot of room to play with. A new story that just happens to start from the same origin of a Viking boy connecting with a dragon could be just what the live-actionHow To Train Your Dragonremakes need to really feel worthwhile, and it could help stopcomparisons between the new live action films and the originals.
