Almost a decade ago, How To Train Your Dragon flew into the lives of its fans, and the animation world was never the same. Now, with How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, that series will take its final bow, leaving a pretty big hole for some lucky new franchise to fill. No one is more aware of this than its star, Jay Baruchel, as he shared the following thoughts about closing out the chronicles of Hiccup to CinemaBlend:
It's crazy, man. I've kind of been preparing for a life post Hiccup. He's been such an intrinsic part of my life for, like you said, over a decade. It's kinda strange, I've never said goodbye to a character I've played this long before. So I'm not entirely sure how it'll all feel, but at least we're ending in the best way we could be ending.
These remarks were part of a longer conversation that CinemaBlend had with Baruchel during the New York Comic-Con press line for How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. After seeing some selected clips, as well as the new trailer that'll be coming to the internet on October 25, it's not hard to see where he's coming from. Setting up the series' grand finale, it was easy to get emotional over our latest look at the final adventure of Hiccup and Toothless.
Just like his on screen surrogate, Jay Baruchel has been through quite a few adventures in the shared worlds of dragon and man. In addition to three feature films, a handful of short features and 118 episodes of Dreamworks' Dragons on Cartoon Network, Baruchel has stuck with Hiccup, and Toothless throughout eight years of adventure and excitement. And from the clips of footage shown at the How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World panel, that bittersweet goodbye will definitely be felt by the fans.
In the footage shown that day, not only was the hidden world of the film's title shown off, but it was also implied that Toothless is, or will shortly be confirmed as, the king of the dragons. This naturally leaves Hiccup and Astrid as outsiders, and while they're amazed at the world shown off in How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Hiccup comes to the quick realization that it's probably the end of the line for him and his dragon friend.
You can see some of that footage yourself, as Dreamworks released a short clip that samples from not only the new trailer, but also some of the clips shown at the panel:
Speaking with Jay Baruchel, his gratitude for what How To Train Your Dragon has given him is readily apparent. At the same time, you can sense the beginnings of sadness, as two of the best friends in animated history are going to go their separate ways. We'll get to see what happens next a little sooner, as How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World has just been bumped up for a February 22, 2019 release date.
