After the success of the live action How to Train Your Dragon remake, a live action How to Train Your Dragon 2 has already been announced, and the upcoming sequel must learn this lesson from its predecessor. How to Train Your Dragon finally saw DreamWorks step into the world of live-action remakes, and based on the box office, the move really paid off.

Now, How to Train Your Dragon 2 has already been announced, with it set to release on June 11, 2027. The sequel will presumably adapt the 2014 animated How to Train Your Dragon 2, telling the story of how Hiccup reunited with his long-lost mother. However, very few details have been revealed about the upcoming sequel.

Based on the first live-action How to Train Your Dragon remake, the upcoming sequel will probably be incredibly faithful to the original animated film. While the movie’s adherence to the source material was praised in the first live-action remake, this may present a problem for How to Train Your Dragon 2.

How To Train Your Dragon 2 Can’t Be Afraid To Make More Changes

It Isn’t As Iconic As The First Movie

Although being faithful worked for the first remake, How to Train Your Dragon 2 can’t be afraid to make more changes to the original movie. The first How to Train Your Dragon is an iconic movie, and fans would undoubtedly have been upset about any major changes that were made to the beloved DreamWorks hit.

However, the same can’t be said for How to Train Your Dragon 2. While the sequel is well-liked, it isn’t as beloved or iconic as its predecessor. Thus, changes can be made without upsetting too many. There aren’t many scenes that fans are dying to see in live-action, so closely sticking to the source material would make the sequel feel too derivative.

The live-action How to Train Your Dragon remake did make some small changes along the way, and How to Train Your Dragon 2 really should expand on this. There is plenty of room to change the sequel and turn it into a better live-action adaptation, and the upcoming movie really needs to do this.

The novelty of seeing Toothless in live action will have worn off by the time that How to Train Your Dragon 2 releases, meaning that simply making a live-action remake isn’t enough. The narrative experience has to be changed enough that it fundamentally feels like a different take on the same story, rather than feeling like a direct copy, which is a trap that 2025’s How to Train Your Dragon fell into.