After the live-action How To Train Your Dragon was one of the biggest 2025 movies, I’m starting to look forward to the sequel that was announced back in April. In anticipation, I decided to rewatch 2014’s How To Train Your Dragon 2 for the first time in many years, and man, I didn’t see one major plot point coming. I want to talk about it, and why it has me realizing I need to bring tissues for the 2027 live-action sequel.
I Totally Forgot About One Major Death In How To Train Your Dragon 2
Directly after watching the live-action How To Train Your Dragon on streaming, Peacock directed me right to the animated sequel. I do remember loving it when it came out, but shortly after turning it on, I realized there’s a lot I had forgotten about the movie (and, it’s over a decade old at this point anyways). I knew that Hiccup ends up reuniting with his long-lost mother, Valka Haddock, who is a dragon rescuer akin to him, but whoa, I forgot about the whole Bewilderbeast storyline.
Basically, Toothless and his Viking friends come across dragon trappers, who become enamored with stealing away the dragons of Berk. They hail to a warlord named Drago, who wants to enslave all dragons into his own army. Drago has an alpha dragon called the Bewilderbeast, who can control smaller dragons with hypnotic sound waves, and he uses these powers to get to Toothless, who almost kills Hiccup with one of his fatal purple blasts. However, Hiccup’s father, Stoick, gets into the blast’s path and sacrifices himself for his son. How absolutely tragic. I couldn’t believe what I was watching take place in the family fantasy film.
After Revisiting It, I Expect To Be In Shambles For The Live-Action Sequel
One of the reasons why I loved the live-action How To Train Your Dragon movie was for the more emotional journey between Hiccup and his father. I love the fact that Gerard Butler came back to play the role in live action, and seeing human expressions are always going to underline relationship moments in a new way. Now that I am caught up on Hiccup and Toothless’s journey further, I just know how sad it’s going to be to see Hiccup’s best friend accidentally kill his father because he’s protecting him. It’s even more difficult because Hiccup and Stoick have a complicated relationship, and have only started repairing things.
Oh, and it happens very soon after they reunite with Valka, making it way more bittersweet. Even though I’m not emotionally ready, watching the 2014 sequel did get me more excited for how the live-action remake will go. Will Cate Blanchett reprise her role? Writer/director Dean Deblois has already spoken about how “challenging” it will be to recapture the events in the medium, and I totally agree. There’s dragon racing, and huge sequences with lots of dragons, and Hiccup literally flies through the air himself with his new suit. It could make for an absolutely epic live-action movie.
As we get ready for the film, which Mason Thames recently said would start production on November 1 when speaking to The Direct, planning for the new film is well underway. After seeing the second animated movie, I can say it’s one of the rare sequels that might be better than the original, so my excitement for the remake, coming out on June 11, 2027, has only heightened after witnessing all that the story includes.