The live-action remake ofHow to Train Your Dragon 2has the opportunity to make some prescient changes to the original animated movie, proving its worth as more than just a change in medium. After thesuccess of the first live-actionHow to Train Your Dragon, the sequel is next on the docket, with plenty of room for improvement.
In the sequel, the Vikings of Berk meet their first human villain using the power of dragons for his own twisted ends, weaponizing them as tools for conquest. 2025’sHow to Train Your Dragonmade some changesthat improved the story, such as Astrid’s heightened role, and the first sequel has an even greater opportunity to follow suit.
10Give Valka And Stoick More Time Together
One of the biggest emotional blows ofHow to Train Your Dragon 2is the return of Hiccup’s long-lost mother and Stoick’s wife, Valka. Valka is revealed to have survived the attack that supposedly killed her, living as a hermit among dragons and learning to coexist with them much like her son.
The reunion between Valka and Stoick is one of the most tear-jerking moments in DreamWorks' history, and the two don’t get nearly enough screentime together before Stoick’s unfortunate end. The live-action remake should take the chance to give Stoick and Valka more time to catch up and learn about each other before cruelly wrenching them apart.
9Change The Design Of The Bewilderbeast
One of the new dragons to join the bestiary of the series inHow to Train your Dragon 2is the massive, intimidating Bewilderbeasts. These massive dragons of almost kaiju-like proportions are dominating apex predators capable of hypnotizing other dragons to obey their command. The villain Drago uses one to force other dragons to his will.
In all honesty, the Bewilderbeasts have some of the weakest designs of theHow to Train Your Dragondragon species. With their awkward, flat faces, pufferfish quills, and unwieldy elephant tusks, the Bewilderbeasts' creature design has a lot of room for improvement that the latest live-action remake could take advantage of.
8Flesh Out Drago’s Backstory
Speaking of Drago, the harpoon-wielding villain represents a big step forward for the franchise as the first human villain in theHow to Train Your Dragonfilms. After all, the first movie is more of a disaster film with a single apex dragon to blame for the fighting rather than human machinations, and Drago changes that in a massive way.
In truth,Drago’s backstory explaining his hatred of the dragons and his desire for conquest is quite weak. It’s briefly stated that he suffered great loss in dragon attacks, but even if this explains his disdain for the beasts, it’s not much justification for wanting to conquer other Viking tribes. A more compelling narrative would go a long way in making Drago a fleshed-out antagonist.
7Get Rid Of The Five-Year Time Skip
One element ofHow to Train Your Dragon 2that would need to change for more practical reasons is the five-year time skip the animated movies have between the first and second entries. Getting rid of this is perhaps the mostimportant change forHow to Train Your Dragon 2for a multitude of reasons.
First and foremost,Mason Thames, Nico Parker, and the rest of the main cast will have only aged a couple of yearsat most in real-life, making it hard to believe that enough time has passed for these versions of the characters. Narratively, the time skip is entirely unnecessary, andHow to Train Your Dragon 2would lose nothing for not implementing it.
6Increase Astrid’s Agency And Role In The Story
An improvement the live-action remake of the firstHow to Train Your Dragonmade to the story is the better depth provided for Astrid as a character.The remake ensured she was more than Hiccup’s love interest, and had a reason to dislike him beyond his nebbishness and perceived cowardice.
InHow to Train Your Dragon 2, Astrid is separated from Hiccup for much of the story, and isn’t given much to do beyond hunting down one of Drago’s henchmen. Reuniting them for longer stretches of the story could help keep Astrid in the spotlight while giving Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut a better focus in the B story.
5Explore The Biology Behind Toothless' Alpha Dragon State Better
Something of a deus ex machina appears inHow to Train Your Dragon 2in the form of Toothless' “Alpha Dragon” state, which subtly alters his biology and gives him new, unique powers. In the movie, this awkward transformation screams merchandise synergy, feeling like something that was only added to provide more toy models to sell.
The live-action remake should make a better effort to explain this sudden boost in power Toothless receives, perhaps tying the transformation to the aging process of the Night Fury or an environmental factor stemming from the new ecosystem he finds himself in. This could add some much-needed biological depth to theHow to Train Your Dragonfight scenes.
4Give Valka A Better Reason To Stay On Her Own
Easily one of the weakest story beats intheHow to Train Your Dragonfranchiseis the explanation of Valka’s continued absence after her survival. Despite being alive and well after the attack that supposedly killed her, Valka spends years living alone among the dragons as a hermit, never making an effort to reconnect with her family.
This paints her in a pretty bad light and doesn’t make much sense from a storytelling perspective, with her weak “you’d be better off without me” reasoning feeling completely disingenuous.The live-actionHow to Train Your Dragon 2could elaborate that she tried to find her way back and failed, or was stopped by dragon trappers and the like.
3Show Other Tribes Training Dragons For Evil Purposes
Image via Universal Pictures
The newHow to Train Your Dragon 2has an interesting opportunity to explore the very idea of training dragons for nefarious purposes. In the franchise, dragons are explained to have their own personalities, but they never seem to be very malevolent beyond the Monstrous Nightmare from the first movie.
SomethingtheHow to Train Your Dragonbooksplay with is the concept of other Viking tribes who train dragons in a manner similar to Hiccup, but for evil means, with the dragons themselves perhaps even being willing to do so. This could be more interesting to see than Drago’s straightforward control of the Bewilderbeast, which is somehow frightened of him enough to comply.
2Keep Drago Around As A Recurring Villain
For as flawed and one-dimensional as he can be at times, Drago is still a very compelling villain. His scarred physique and haunting war cry both make for memorable and chilling moments, and it’s a shame that he never returned to the franchise after being defeated inHow to Train Your Dragon 2.
The live-action remake could fix that by setting him up to return forHow to Train Your Dragon 3, replacing Grimmel the Grisly, who essentially fulfills the same role in the story anyway.This could create a stronger, more cohesive trilogy of filmsthat connect to one another more than the original animated movies do, not needing to set up yet another dragon-hating villain.
1Create More Consequences For Valka’s Absence
Despite Valka never trying or caring to rejoin her family, Hiccup and Stoick don’t spend all that much time being upset at her. In all honesty,the relationship between Valka, Hiccup, and Stoick is painfully under-explored in the originalHow to Train Your Dragon 2, and Valka never feels any consequences for her actions.
Stoick and Hiccup could serve to be more heartbroken at the idea of their beloved wife and mother hiding away from them for all these years. Likewise, Valka could be horrified at Stoick’s former hatred of the dragons, resulting in some interesting tension that could spice up the drama ofHow to Train Your Dragon 2.
