Running franchises into the ground is an industry-wide problem, but even those who hold the 1996 original in the highest esteem as an everlasting cult favorite might not even be aware that Dragonheart is a five-film series.
To be fair, all four of the successors to the Dennis Quaid and Sean Connery medieval caper never even sniffed the inside of a theater, but they still conspired to create a messy continuity that made it abundantly clear from the get-go that the entire saga was made almost entirely for the purpose of extracting every single last drop of revenue from an IP that doesn’t exactly dwell among the top tier when it comes to awareness, name recognition, and global popularity.
The only direct sequel of the bunch was 2000’s New Beginning, which took place decades after the original. From there, the series jumped back in time a full 15 years later for prequel The Sorcerer’s Curse, before third installment Battle for the Heartfire unfolded 50 years after that, making it the sequel to the prequel of a sequel to the first chapter.
As confusing as that sounds, Battle for the Heartfire does offer one curious tidbit of trivia after Patrick Stewart became the third genuine knight of the realm to voice scaly hero Draco, following in the footsteps of the opener’s aforementioned Connery and The Sorcerer’s Curse‘s Ben Kingsley.
Not exactly a robust legacy, then, but Netflix subscribers have endeavored to ensure the ongoing Dragonheart saga has returned to breathe fire on the Netflix charts. Per FlixPatrol, Battle for the Heartfire has spread its wings and soared straight onto the global rankings, and it even finds itself as one of the 10 top-viewed features in both Australia and New Zealand for good measure.