Steven Spielberg Calls How To Train Your Dragon 3 A Classic And Better Than The Original

Well, at long last, it looks like How To Train Your Dragon 3 – which will be subtitled The Hidden World – is about to take flight and spread its wings. It’s been a long time coming, too, as the last movie flew into theaters back in 2014 and it was only this June that we got the first trailer for the threequel.

Promising another vibrant, colorful adventure, the teaser certainly got us pumped for what’s to come, as we saw Hiccup and Toothless (who’s as adorable as ever) team up together once again for what appears to be a journey to discover their true destines. Living up to the previous entries in the franchise will certainly be tough, no doubt about it, but if Steven Spielberg’s to be believed, The Hidden World just might be able to.

Director Dean DeBlois was speaking at the Animation Dingle festival a while back and shared a story of how his first two drafts of the script weren’t exactly pleasing studio execs. He then took one final pass at the screenplay and gave it to Spielberg – who serves as a consultant on the film – and thankfully, the Hollywood legend was over the moon about it.

According to DeBlois, here’s what the filmmaker told him:

I cannot believe what I just read. And I had a problem reading the last part of it through my tears. It’s a complete unqualified classic and better than the original. I’ve never witnessed this kind of transformation from the last two drafts I read to this one. I only wish I had points.

That’s certainly some high praise, and only has us feeling even more excited for How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World to fly into theaters on March 1st, 2019. It’ll supposedly close out the franchise, too, but fans needn’t worry, as DeBlois has already teased that there could be some spinoffs to come in the future. What they may involve remains unknown, but as soon as we learn more, we’ll be sure to let you know.