Out of this past weekend's New York Comic-Con comes an early look at a sure-fire, family-friendly hit of 2019: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. From DreamWorks Animation comes a surprising tale about growing up, finding the courage to face the unknown…and how nothing can ever train you to let go. What began as an unlikely friendship between an adolescent Viking and a fearsome Night Fury dragon has become an epic adventure spanning their lives.  Welcome to the most astonishing chapter of one of the most beloved animated franchises in film history!

Now chief and ruler of Berk alongside Astrid, Hiccup has created a gloriously chaotic dragon utopia. When the sudden appearance of a female Light Fury coincides with the darkest threat their village has ever faced, Hiccup and Toothless must leave the only home they’ve known and journey to a hidden world thought only to exist in myth.  As their true destines are revealed, dragon and rider will fight together—to the very ends of the Earth—to protect everything they’ve grown to treasure.

In How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, series director Dean DeBlois returns alongside the all-star cast featuring Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Cate Blanchett, Kit Harrington, Craig Ferguson, and F. Murray Abraham. The film is produced by Brad Lewis (Ratatouille, ANTZ) and Bonnie Arnold (Toy Story, How to Train Your Dragon, How to Train Your Dragon 2). The final chapter in the HTTYD feature trilogy arrives February 22nd, 2019.

Check out the recent NYCC clip below:

Now fans of the series, which stretches back to Cressida Cowell's first book in the series in 2003 and gained further fame with DreamWorks Animation's first film adaptation in 2011, will likely remember that the entirety of the first movie centered on a conflict between Hiccup and his ruling father, Stoick the Vast, over how to handle dragons. Stoick, a "smash first and ask questions later" type of Viking, was disappointed in his son's soft-hearted approach to dragon-handling. Obviously Hiccup would win over the approval of his father, his fellow vikings, and the dragons themselves over the course of his adventures, but this clip seems to suggest a strange sort of retcon to the mythology. Or perhaps the touching conversation between father and son is out of context, and perhaps Stoick's true intentions are still as biased against dragonkind as they ever were. We'll find out for sure in early 2019.

For more on How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, take a look at our previous coverage linked below, along with new images from the film:

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Image via DreamWorks Animation
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Image via DreamWorks Animation
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