'How To Train Your Dragon' will not get another instalment after the third.
Dean DeBlois
The film's director Dean DeBlois has confirmed that the forthcoming movie 'The Hidden World' will be the last to feature in the franchise as him and his team of writers believe they've managed to draw the blockbuster to a close for good.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly magazine, he said: "We thought about it for a long time and came up with what we think is a bittersweet way to say goodbye to these characters, but the right way. You will understand why Hiccup says, as you heard in the trailer, 'There were dragons when I was a boy.' And by the end of this film, you'll have answered the question [of] what could have happened to them."
Fans have been waiting for 'How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World' to drop since 2016 when bosses announced a 2017 release date before pushing it back to 2018 and then, most recently, delaying it until March next year.
In 2015, DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg said the biggest issue with scheduling times was due to the restructuring of DreamWorks - the movie production company - and conceded that the three-films-a-year plan was very ambitious.
The original 'How To Train Your Dragon' came to screens in 2010 and was a considerable success.
The movie introduced Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), a misfit teenager who studies at a dragon-fighting school - and he tries to prove that he is a true Viking.
'How To Train Your Dragon 2', meanwhile, was released in 2014 and saw Hiccup off on another adventure to discover unexplored lands.
The third instalment will see F. Murray Abraham play villain Grimmel as he joins Baruchel, Cate Blanchett, America Ferrara and Kit Harington, who have already lent their voices to characters in the hit franchise.
Tagged in Cate Blanchett Jay Baruchel