How to Train Your Dragon 3 Release Date, News, and Updates: Sequel Delayed for One Year

By Ken Salcedo Sep 03, 2014 08:09 AM EDT

Hiccup and Toothles in How to Train Your Dragon 2

How to Train Your Dragon 3 Release Date, News, and Updates: Sequel Delayed for One Year

How to Train Your Dragon 3 has been delayed for 1 year. It was originally planned to be released on June 16, 2016, but now Dark Horizons reported that according to DreamWorks Animation they've moved the release date to June 9, 2017.

How to train Your Dragon tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a young teenage boy named Hiccup and a black dragon he appropriately names Toothless. With the rest of his Viking clan who look at dragons as dangerous killing machines, Hiccup saw an opportunity to build bridges between the beasts.

The move of the release date might have been caused by the release of Pixar's Finding Dory, the sequel to the 2003 hit animated film Finding Nemo, having the same release date. The new release date of Dragon 3 however will have it competing 2 weeks after the release of The Lego Movie 2. How to Train Your Dragon 2's box office performance was a disappointment losing the opening weekend to the R-Rated comedy film 22 Jump Street. Worldwide box office performance however proves that the franchise is viable and that a sequel is certain.

Writer/Director Dean DeBlois originally intended the franchise to be a trilogy but DreamWorks Animation head Jeffrey Katzenberg is looking forward to making How to Train Your Dragon 4; though the desire for the fourth film is there, no official statement has been released by the studio.

With the last two films displaying how much heart and compassion the writers put into it, we can only hope for now that the next entry to the franchise can deliver the same quality of entertainment to theaters in its intended 2017 release.