Things are moving forward on How to Train Your Dragon 2, with the logo for the live-action adaptation freshly unveiled. The epic fantasy film series brings to life DreamWorks' animated movies from the 2010s, with Mason Thames and Nico Parker leading the movies as Hiccup and Astrid. The 2025 adaptation of the first How to Train Your Dragon received rave reviews and grossed over $600 million worldwide, which quickly led to the greenlighting of a sequel based on the second animated instalment.
How to Train Your Dragon Star Mason Thames told The Direct at New York Comic-Con last year that production on the sequel was aiming to begin in November 2025, although things seem to have started a little later. A recent Instagram post from director Dean DeBlois confirmed that day one of filming is underway on How to Train Your Dragon 2, with the creative posing with the production slate and the caption: "Back in the saddle! Day 1 of principal production on HTTYD2! The adventure begins..."
The image also offers a first look at the logo for How to Train Your Dragon 2, emblazoned in red on the slate.
Similar to the first live-action How to Train Your Dragon logo, the sequel uses the same font and a curled-up dragon for the "O" in the "dragon" portion of the logo. However, one notable difference between the two live-action adaptation logos is that How to Train Your Dragon 2 utilizes red lettering rather than the silver shade of the original.
This shift in color marks a callback to the original How to Train Your Dragon films, which used red font across all three animated movie logos. While it's unclear whether this will be the final logo for How to Train Your Dragon 2, the shift in color scheme is a good sign that the live-action film will remain faithful to its source material.
Along with the reveal of the logo, the good news is that How to Train Your Dragon 2 is finally in production. The film currently has a release date of June 11, 2027, giving it plenty of lead time in 18 months.
What to Expect From the Live-Action How To Train Your Dragon 2
As the title suggests, How to Train Your Dragon 2 will be based on the second of DreamWorks' animated films in the franchise, which continues the story of Hiccup and his dragon, Toothless, as they encounter a vindictive new villain who wants to use a dragon army to take over. The second How to Train Your Dragon film was the highest-grossing of DreamWorks' three original films and garnered nominations at the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards.
Expectations are already sky high for the sequel, but the live-action adaptation seems to be taking a similar approach to the original by remaining as faithful to the How to Train Your Dragon source material as possible.
Along with the return of DeBlois, who also directed the animated films, How to Train Your Dragon 2 has cast Cate Blanchett to play Valka, Hiccup's mother (a role which she voiced in the original animated feature), in a similar move to Gerard Butler's casting as Stoick in the first live-action movie. Additionally, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson was recently cast as the villain, Drogo.
This combination of new actors and familiar faces, with a steady guiding hand from DeBlois, promises a continuation of everything that was successful in the first How to Train Your Dragon adaptation, which became one of the more successful films in the animation-to-live-action trend taking over Hollywood.
