Hiccup and Toothless are returning next year in How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, which will be the third and final installment in the animated fantasy trilogy written and directed by Dean DeBlois. The film picks up one year after the end of How to Train Your Dragon 2, and sees the Viking village of Berk under new threat from a villain called Grimmel (voiced by F. Murray Abraham), a dragon-killer who made his name by driving Toothless' species to the brink of extinction.

After the first trailer for How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World dropped earlier this month, Screen Rant spoke to DeBlois about the challenges of bringing this epic and emotional tale to a close after ten years.

So, we've got Hiccup with a beard at one point in the trailer, and because there was a five year time skip between the first and second movies, I'm wondering how old is he when How to Train Your Dragon 3 begins?

Dean DeBlois: The main narrative of the film takes place about a year after the events of Dragon 2. So there's a five year jump from 1 to 2, and about a year jump from 2 to 3, because we wanted to focus on Hiccup's rookie run at being Chief of Berk. Bearded Hiccup is indicated in the trailer, which is a little misleading because it doesn't speak to the main narrative of the story. There will be moments in the movie where we play with the timeline a little bit. We go forward, and we also go backward. It's all about wrapping up Hiccup's journey from being one of the ne'er-dowells of the Viking tribe to being a wise and selfless Viking Chief.

It's been quite an interesting year for him and Toothless, because at the end of the last movie they both got quite a big promotion.

DD: [Laughs] Yes.

Hiccup became Chief of the tribe, and Toothless became the Alpha of all the dragons. I imagine they now have a bit less freedom than in the last movie, when they were off exploring and having fun.

DD: Exactly. The carefree abandon of youth has now been replaced with some fairly weighty responsibilities. And it also sets up very much in the third installment, where it's like the story's on a dual path. It both tracks Hiccup and Toothless' story - not only them together but also Hiccup's new problems as they arise, and Toothless' new complications as he discovers a mate who is a distraction in and of herself.

How To Train Your Dragon 3 - Grimmel

Speaking of the new threats on the horizon, we saw the movie's villain, Grimmel. Can you tell me anything about him? Is he a dragon rider as well?

DD: Grimmel is of the belief that dragons need to be eliminated or enslaved. Put them in a zoo if you must, but he does not want a world in which dragons roam free. He sees himself as a superior species, and made his name by wiping out the most feared dragons known to mankind. Those were the Night Furies. Toothless is a discovery that's made in this movie, but [Grimmel] has built his name and his fame on being the man who drove Night Furies to extinction.

So I imagine he and Hiccup aren't going to get along well.

DD: No, because on a fundamental level Hiccup believes that dragons are misunderstood, and that given the chance we could all live peacefully together. And Grimmel, he's just all about intolerance. [He thinks] dragons are vermin. They are the enemy, they must be suppressed or removed. He cannot tolerate a world in which he has to live with dragons, and the idea that there's some young Viking chief on the island of Berk trying to teach people that they can all live together is personally offensive to him.

This is the final chapter, I understand. There's not going to be a fourth movie in this continuity.

DD: Yeah, yeah, and the great challenge in all of this was the notion that we kind of threw [laughs] a dart at a destination back when we decided we were going to make a sequel from the first film, and that was to tell Hiccup and Toothless' story in three acts. And by having three movies to do it we also knew that our end destination a world without dragons, the world we now know - what happened, where did they go, could they come back? All of those mysteries were delicious challenges back in the day, and they lined up with the inspiration that I took from Cressida Cowell, the author of the books. She had the same ambition at the time she was working on the last installment in her book series, and her goal was to explain what happened to dragons. And though we had very different narratives, as a goal it felt like a really compelling one.

Page 2: The Light Fury and The Hidden World

How to Train Your Dragon 3 - Light Fury

I wanted to ask about the new Night Fury - or Light Fury? Is it the same species as Toothless, or is she slightly different?

DD: She's slightly different. The Light Furies are a variation of the Night Fury species. They share a lot in common, but they have their own traits and they have abilities as well. She has a fairly unique ability, she's able to blast a fireball, fly through it, and heat up her scales so that when she emerges from that fireball she's effectively invisible because she has turned mirror-like. She reflects her environment, whether she be in a cloudscape or lost in foliage or wherever she is. She can effectively vanish, right in front of your eyes, simply by becoming a big wobbling mirror. And then as she cools off she reappears, as if materializing from nothing. So it's a unique ability that allows her to be very stealthy.

Are we going to see any new powers for Toothless in this movie?

DD: Yeah, Toothless does acquire some new skills as well. He continues to surprise even Hiccup. And without getting into detail about that, I would say yes. One last thing about the Light Fury is that unlike Toothless she is not the last of her kind. She is of a particular species - not that we'll get to meet a whole lot of them, but it's important to know that Toothless' species was hunted down to near-extinction whereas she is not.

Another thing I noticed in the trailer was Toothless attempting to do a mating dance. 

DD: [Laughs]

How to Train Your Dragon 3 - Toothless and Light Fury

What kind of animal references did you use for the dragons? Because it seems like their mannerisms are a whole bunch of different animals mixed together.

DD: Yeah, every dragon that we have has a dominant animal reference. Cloudjumper is based on an owl, Toothless is based on a black panther, we have a dragon that's sort of based on a bulldog and so on. And I think with Toothless, he's a bit of a mix. He's part dog, part cat. But when it comes to the mating dance we also spent a lot of time researching on the internet, finding funny videos of birds and animals in the wild kingdom performing their courtship rituals, and some of them are hilarious. We kind of created a little bit of a medley [laughs]. Toothless is not only the last of his kind, and therefore out of touch with the customs of his fellow Night Furies, he's also been affected by his time spent with humans. He's just generally a bumbling amateur when it comes to issues of courting rituals, whereas the Light Fury is pure, she's not been corrupted by human contact. She comes from a rich land of dragons so she's much more accustomed to her own behaviors. It makes for a funny scene, where she initiates a courtship ritual and he's unable to keep up [laughs].

I wanted to talk about the Hidden World, since it's the subtitle of the movie. Is it a sanctuary for dragons?

DD: Well, the Hidden World is proposed in the story as a myth, an old sea-faring legend about a land at the edge of the world, where many sailors have lost their ships - never to be seen again. Those who have returned reported sightings of a great waterfall and dragons guarding the entrance to a hidden world beneath the sea. A land from which all dragons hail. And so it's just this mariner's myth that Hiccup is intrigued by, and when push comes to shove he realizes that that may be their salvation. If there's any truth to it, it could be a place where they could effectively disappear off the map and carry on their way of life, living peacefully with their dragons, far away from their enemies.

Hiccup and Toothless have a pretty deep bond at this point. Are we going to see their friendship tested again?

DD: Well they are very solid as a team, and they're co-chiefs of their respective tribes, and so they have a very tight bond. That's kind of what's emotionally interesting about this situation. Hiccup has this deep-seated belief that he is unworthy and incapable without Toothless. He was sort of the runt of the Viking tribe and was in everyone's way and incapable back in the first movie, until he met Toothless. Since then he's become quite capable and confident and he's had some great achievements along the way. But all of it, in his own mind, contributes to his bond with Toothless. Their situation of trying to maintain their way of life, and the discovery of the Light Fury, brings some dramatic questions, because Toothless is enraptured with her and very curious about her, and yet she doesn't trust humans, and so she's eager to lure Toothless away. And Hiccup wants what's best for Toothless, and yet at the same time he's a bit possessive as well. The larger emotional throughline of the story is talking about having the courage to embrace the unknown.

More: How to Train Your Dragon 3 Poster Teases A Brand New World

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