How to Watch 'How To Train Your Dragon' Movies, Series & Short Films in Order
The How to Train Your Dragon series, based on Cressida Cowell’s book series, has grown into a beloved franchise since the release of the first animated movie in 2010. Known for both its heartwarming relationships between humans and dragons and its beautiful animation, the story’s universe has grown to include everything from animated and live-action films to TV series, video games, a graphic novel and a theatrical play.
This guide includes shows you the wide range of How To Train Your Dragon movies, shorts and TV shows. If you're only interested in watching the franchise's feature length movies, here's the correct order:
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
How To Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)
How To Train Your Dragon (2025)
However, there are plenty of amazing TV shows and shorts to enjoy too. They can either be watched after you've binged the movies, or you can watch them in their release order. If you're interested in the full list of adventures the HTTYD franchise has to order, here's everything release order (and where to stream them).
Here’s the movie where it all began. How to Train Your Dragon is a story about a young Viking, named Hiccup, who makes friends with a wounded dragon, named Toothless. It’s a wonderfully exciting story that also contains a message about accepting outsiders, as Hiccup and Toothless’s friendship changes how the other vikings think about dragons and, ultimately, about themselves.
Needless to say, if you’re looking for an animated adventure that viewers of all ages can enjoy (think Kubo & the Two Strings or Raya and the Last Dragon), few do it better than this one.
The longest HTTYD short is Dragons: Dawn of the Dragon Racers, a 26-minute story that originally appeared on the DVD release of How to Train Your Dragon 2.
Set three years before the second movie, this one follows a race between Hiccup and his friends to become Berk’s first Dragon Racing Champion—younger viewers with a love for all things racing will likely appreciate it more than others.
After the events of the original trilogy, Netflix released DreamWorks Dragons: Rescue Riders. The plot follows Dak and Leyla, two young humans who were raised by dragons and, as a result, have acquired the ability to speak with them.
A spin-off show from the HTTYD universe, Rescue Riders might be appealing to much younger viewers.
The final movie in the trilogy, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, sees Hiccup and Toothless discover a hidden dragon utopia. Now 21 years old, Hiccup must deal with the responsibilities of being chief, while Toothless finds love with Light Fury. Together, they confront a new dragon hunter called Grimmel (voiced by the great F. Murray Abraham).
Talking about the movie in interviews, Deblois mentioned Avatar as a visual reference for the bioluminescence of The Hidden World and, more interestingly still, cited the cinematography in The Revenant as inspiration for some of the long takes in the action scenes. So, if you’re a HTTYD fan who appreciates either of those movies, you’ll want to check this one out.
How To Train Your Dragon: Homecoming is the second holiday special in the HTTYD universe. Containing most of the cast from The Hidden World, this one is set ten years after the end of the movie, when the dragons left the vikings, and focuses on Hiccup’s attempts to convince his children that the dragons weren’t monsters. To do so, he and Astrid plan to bring back the Snoggletog pageant.
This is another of the series’ holiday offerings and another that younger members of the family will definitely get into.
