How To Train Your Dragon was one of the 2025 new movie releases to really blow my mind in its scale and execution, and while I hope everyone got to see it on the big screen, it is streaming for those with a Peacock subscription starting this weekend. That won’t be the end of the live action franchise, either, as director Dean DeBlois and lead Gerard Butler already announced How To Train Your Dragon 2 at a CinemaCon event I attended earlier this year.
Despite the new movie feeling like it just came out, those involved have very much been looking ahead, and when I spoke to DeBlois he told me he’s been really thinking about the “challenges” of the upcoming How To Train Your Dragon 2 live action movie already. It’s one thing to have hordes of dragons animated for the big screen, and another to do it with more practical effects, more intensive CGI, and opposite real-life human actors.
I think about anything involving the masses of dragons. If we’re having a battle on the beach with, you know, hundreds of dragon traps and dragons that are flying out of Valka’s Mountain and attacking from Drago’s forces.I think about the scale of that battle and trying to execute it in live action and it feels kind of overwhelming.
The dragon sanctuary, AKA Valka’s Mountain, comes into play in the next movie, so there really will be a ton of additional multi-dragon scenes to figure out. It’s not just the big details that need to be factored into the budget, either. The animated How To Train Your Dragon 2 also has a famous scene where Hiccup flies with Toothless thanks to the aid of a wing suit. It’s pretty cool in animation, but if you throw the fact that Mason Thames would likely need to be suited up in real life, things could get a little bit tricky.
The director has been thinking about this, but says he’s lucky to be able to rely on his super creative team to help him do the heavy lifting, here.
That’s gonna be challenging. I’ve been thinking about [the wing suit] as well. Because it needs to feel light and spontaneous and free. And it can’t feel restrained in its movements. That’ll be a tricky one to figure out. Those guys are geniuses. You give them a challenge, and they’ll come up with six different solutions.
It sounds like they may need to take some notes from that Superman flying scene with David Corenswet. Still, he sounds confident they’ll figure out all the Hiccup and Astrid stunt stuff in a timely manner. Both Nico Parker and Mason Thames also told me the second movie is their “favorite” of the original trilogy, so challenges aside, I think there’s going to be a lot to look forward to.
I’ve been excited to watch two big How To Train Your Dragon moments thanks to it heading into homes, so I’m excited for the latest streaming release so I can watch the flick again, but honestly all this dragon talk has me champing at the bit for the next movie. June 11, 2027 can’t come soon enough.