DreamWorks’ History-Making How To Train Your Dragon 2 Is Something Disney Can Never Do

The upcoming release of How to Train Your Dragon 2 is history in the making, and it’s a painful lesson for Disney’s slate of live-action remakes. Hitting theaters 15 years after the debut of the beloved animated franchise, 2025’s live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon was a big hit. Box offices soared and critics praised the film’s faithfulness to the source material.

As if that wasn’t a big enough success, DreamWorks was quick to announce a sequel to the remake that’s due in theaters in 2027. The studio made history with this announcement because it marked the first time an animated sequel would be receiving its own live-action redo. How to Train Your Dragon 2 will be based on the eponymous animated hit from 2014.

It remains to be seen if the sequel will leave the same mark as the first, but the franchise has a built-in fanbase that is clamoring for more trips to the Isle of Berk. The news that Cate Blanchett has signed on to reprise her role as Valka helps to make the upcoming live-action sequel even more intriguing, and it further opens the door for a potential third film in the near future.

DreamWorks and Disney have been competing for box office supremacy for decades now, and though they’ve traded blows over the years, the latter has never been knocked from its perch. This new phase of DreamWorks’ live-action division is the first time in ages that the studio has made a dent in Disney’s legacy, largely because the House of Mouse really can’t compete.

Disney Can’t Remake Animated Sequels In Live-Action Like How To Train Your Dragon 2

When looking back at Disney’s slate of live-action remakes, the studio has already tackled many of their most famous classics. The Lion King, The Jungle Book, Aladdin, and The Little Mermaid have all been given the live-action treatment to varying degrees of success. While some of them did get sequels, none of them had anything to do with the existing animated sequels.

This is because Disney’s history with franchises is quite spotty. Before the 2010s, Disney never put much effort into their cartoon follow-ups, and they were typically relegated to straight-to-video fare. All the aforementioned movies did have sequels, but none of them were full efforts. Only recently has the studio begun pumping out sequels, but these have been exclusively for their newest films.

On the flip side, DreamWorks has never shied away from expanding their hit movies into ongoing series. They usually put real effort into making the sequels as good or even better than the originals. The How to Train Your Dragon series is a prime example, with the first sequel arguably surpassing its predecessor. All that said, Disney hasn’t given themselves a deep well to draw from in terms of live-action sequels.

How To Train Your Dragon’s Remake Already Showed Disney How It’s Done

Hiccup is trying to control a dragon in How to Train Your Dragon

Though neither studio’s live-action remakes are ever going to beat the cynical cash grab allegations, at least How to Train Your Dragon is an excellent movie. It does a terrific job of recreating all the magical moments from the animated film, with the added excitement of live-action. The animated movies will always exist, and the remake does nothing to tarnish their legacy.

Disney’s live-action remakes, on the other hand, have ranged from pretty good to downright awful. Some are enjoyable adaptations, while others make so many unnecessary changes that they betray the artistic integrity of the original. DreamWorks can fall into the same trap if they continue to make live-action adaptations, but that probably isn’t going to happen with How to Train Your Dragon 2.

Even if the remake follows the original movie’s script to the letter, it will be another strong adaptation. The obvious care that went into 2025’s How to Train Your Dragon is the real reason the movie succeeded, and that same care is already present in the production of the sequel. Disney really should be taking notes when How to Train Your Dragon 2 finally comes out, but it’s unclear if they can replicate its winning formula.