Dragons: The Nine Realms Teaser: How To Train Your Dragon Gets A Modern-Day Sequel Series

Remember those "How to Train Your Dragon" movies? I won't sit here and try to convince anyone that they were the pinnacle of animated storytelling or anything, but the first movie came out of nowhere in 2010 and proved to be charming and successful enough to spawn its own trilogy of dragon-rider films set hundreds of years ago in a mystical Viking land. The two sequels, released in 2014 and 2019, ended up bringing the surprisingly satisfying journey of Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) and his adorable dragon friend Toothless to a close (along with a little bit of angst surrounding the suddenly-hot version of Hiccup in the last movie, to boot). They were nice and entertaining and told a story from beginning to end ... until now, at least.

Somehow, someone got it into their head that us dragon-starved audiences have been crying out for a continuation of the "How to Train Your Dragon" movies, but set in modern times now. That's the bonkers premise for a brand-new series set in the same world of the trilogy, titled "Dragons: The Nine Realms." DreamWorks released a very brief teaser, which you can watch below.

No, I don't really get it, either. The new animated series, which sure looks like it's boasting a much more inferior animation style than the movies ever did, will follow a bunch of modern-day characters who eventually realize that the now-mythical dragons that used to be so prevalent in the original trilogy are actually real. It's more than a little distressing to be thrown back into the same world where fan-favorite characters like Hiccup, Astrid (America Ferrera), and all the rest are now, uh, long dead and gone, but perhaps this unexpected continuation will have some surprises in store for viewers. The new animated series comes from executive producer and showrunner John Tellegen and stars voice actor Jeremy Shada.

"Dragons: The Nine Realms" debuts on Hulu and Peacock on December 23, 2021.

Set 1,300 years after the events of How To Train Your Dragon, dragons are now just a legend to the modern world. When a geological anomaly opens up an immense, miles-deep fissure in the Earth's surface, scientists from all over the world gather at a new research facility to study the mysterious phenomenon. Soon a group of misfit kids, brought to the site by their parents, uncover the truth about dragons and where they've been hiding — a secret they must keep to themselves to protect what they've discovered.