The Dragon Prince Season 4: Everything We Know So Far

This seems to be the year of the dragon. There's "House of the Dragon," a "Dragon Age" cartoon, and if you extend the calendar year a bunch there's even the "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" movie. Also joining the dance of dragons is the highly anticipated fourth season of Netflix's "The Dragon Prince," a show that sneakily became the best fantasy TV show on the air, with its complex tale of betrayal, love, and magic amidst a world at war.

The animated series follows two prince half-brothers accompanied by an elf assassin as they journey on a quest to bring the last baby dragon to its kin, hoping to end a millennium-old conflict between elves and humans that culminated with the assassination of the previous dragon king.

Last season ended with the boys Callum and Ezran successfully bringing the young Zym to his mother and even built up an army of dragons, elves, and sympathetic humans to defend the last dragon and defeat the army of the evil sorcerer Viren. During the battle, Viren falls to his death.

Where one story ends, another begins. Here's what we know about season 4 of "The Dragon Prince," dubbed "The Mystery of Aaravos."

It's been 84 years since the release of the least season, or so it feels. Given that the show premiered on September 2018, but seasons 2 and 3 both were released in 2019, the wait for new episodes has felt particularly long. Thankfully, it seems we don't have to wait very long for the next season.

During a San Diego Comic-Con panel for the next chapter of "The Dragon Prince" saga, it was revealed that the show would return with nine new episodes this November on Netflix. The number of episodes is standard for the show so far, so those expecting a longer season to compensate for the longer wait may be disappointed, but you know what they say about quantity and quality ...

We haven't got a full proper trailer, but the recent San Diego Comic-Con panel for "The Dragon Prince" unveiled some fresh new clips that give us a glimpse of the updated animation style, and the tone of the new chapter in the story. The first clip expands on the cliffhanger from last season, with Viren awakening from being resuscitated by his daughter Claudia and the sinister Startouch elf Aaravos metamorphosizing into a cocoon. Then the second clip shows a grown up Callum now acting as the new High Mage, still carrying his trusty magic book.

Season 4 starts with a big time skip, picking up two years after the Battle of the Storm Spire that ended last season. Though there is finally peace across the lands, the human kingdoms and the magical realm of Xadia cannot forget the centuries of pain so easily, and tensions remain. We'll find Ezran now fully stepped into his role as the king of Katolis, with Soren and Corvus acting as his Crownguard. Meanwhile, Callum has taken over the post of High Mage since the last one turned evil and also died (as far as they know). Rayla left Callum and is in search of Viren, and no one has seen her in a while. The cute little dragon Zym is no longer just a hatchling, so we can expect some more dragon action this season. As for the Sunfire elves, Janai is trying to rebuild them after the Sunforge became corrupted and started spawning monstrosities.

The bulk of the season deals with Viren realizing he's been resurrected, but has only 30 days to live unless he and Claudia successfully free Aaravos from his prison. Of course the very susceptible Claudia is hellbent on finding out the long-lost location of the prison to save her father, even if it means doom for all the land. The season is therefore a race against time with the other main characters trying to stop Claudia from freeing Aaravos.

Also new this season is the introduction of Earthblood elves, and a new land, the Drakewood.

We've known for a while that "The Dragon Prince" will be a saga in the vein of "The Last Airbender," with a total of eight seasons. The Comic Con panel revealed that seasons 5 through 7 are in various stages of production right now. Most exciting is the reveal that this upcoming season 4 is the start of a "new multi-season arc"  that is all about the gloomy and mysterious Aaravos, so you just know they won't get rid of him so easily. On the contrary, the Startouch elf is to take center stage as he stakes his claim to Xadia "after centuries of careful planning."

It seems this saga is about to enter its "Empire Strikes Back" phase, and we cannot wait to see what comes next.