Compilation of interviews from DWA staff, Dean DeBlois and Jay Baruchel on the TV series (ROB, DOB & RTTE) and its canonicity within the HTTYD movieverse
Since I still see some people asking or arguing about this, Iâve decided to look for some interviews across the internet and compile as much as possible in a single post. Bear in mind that some of these are a few years old, with the earliest from 2014.Â
Note and Disclaimer:Â Although I will state my perspective and opinion at the end of the post, I want to highlight that this is not to argue in favour or against anyone who considers it canon or not, but just to provide clarity to those who would like to hear what was actually said by those involved in the making of the franchise. Whether anyone wants to accept the TV series as canon despite what the Dreamworks crew and actors said, itâs entirely up to them.Â
Long post ahead so Iâm putting it under a âKeep readingâ link. This post will also be updated if I find anymore interviews in the future relevant to this topic.Â
Unfortunately since Tumblr no longer allows external links to be posted here, I have used redirects instead for the links of the interviews, which cannot be opened with the Tumblr mobile app, so you will need to use a browser to open them. Nevertheless, I have copied in and bold the relevant parts for those who cannot open the links.Â
Collider (2014):Â with Jay Baruchel (and Dean DeBlois)
How does the television series factor in to the movie franchise?
JAY BARUCHEL:  One of the cool things about the TV show is that we get to go a bit more into the everyday life.  We donât have enough screen time to do that in the movies.  We have a very specific finite amount of time that things have to happen in, in the movies.  What the TV show gives us is the chance to put the audience in that neighborhood and on that  island, experiencing the minutiae of everyday life for a Viking.Â
Jay, itâs very rare for the star of the movie to be involved with the TV show, as well. Â How did you become involved with the TV series?
BARUCHEL:  Well, for me, there was no question.  I didnât want anyone else to play the role.  I think part of the actorâs job is to take ownership of the character, and to be defensive and protective, and all that stuff.  So, when it was first mentioned that Hiccup might have a life on television, it had to be me, in my opinion.  What is really cool about the TV show is that it takes place in between the two movies.  And so, when all is said and done and we walk away, weâll have given the world a pretty full, complete story.  Selfishly, itâs kept me in that mind space.  A lot of people have been asking me what itâs like to come back to this character and come back to this world, and my answer has constantly been, âI never left.â  I just love that weâre creating this deep, open platform thatâs a multimedia world.  What it all comes down to is that I just didnât want anyone else to play Hiccup.
Groucho Reviews (2014):Â Â with Dean DeBlois and the cast
G: So as we move toward a wrap-up here, maybe you could all talk a little bit about where you see the franchise going. I know thereâs going to be a TV series that shows us what happens between the filmsâŠ
Jay Baruchel (JB): Uh-huh!
G: And then where it might go from there. Iâm sure thereâs a plot for a third film, rightâ?
Dean DeBlois (DD): Mm-hm!
G: Because itâs conceived as a trilogy?Â
DD: Yeah, absolutely. We didnât want a sequel that felt random, or unneccesary. So in charting Hiccupâs coming of age, the end goal is to end up where Cressida Cowell began her books. Hiccup is an adult reflecting back on a time when there were dragons. And that seems to indicate that dragons will go away, that Hiccup will complete his coming of age. How that all evolves is yet to be unveiled. we just promise to do it in a very powerful and hopefully emotionally satisfying way. And then the TV series actually helps bridge the gap. So now that theyâre heading into Series Three and Four, theyâre going to use our older versions of the characters and begin to set up the year leading up to movie number two. So youâll start to see Hiccup beginning to explore the outer limits of the Viking map. Youâll see the development of the dragon-racing games on Berk and other things: y'know, Hiccupâs dragon blade. All of these things will have a little bit more time to explain what they are and how they came to be.Â
Rotoscopers (2015):Â with Douglas Sloan
Dean DeBlois could not be involved on a creative level with Race to the Edge, as he was incredibly busy with How to Train Your Dragon 2. However, they did continue to have regular check-in dinners with Dean to ensure that nothing in Race to the Edge conflicted with the overall continuity of the franchise.Â
Toonzone (2015):Â with Art Brown and Douglas Sloan
Q: You know the point youâre going to, the second movie. In terms of storytelling, is that a process you have enjoyed? Knowing where you end up?
DOUG SLOAN: Yeah, I think itâs really actually great. Itâs almost like bowling with bumpers because you know you canât go here, here, here. You canât bring in Hiccupâs mother. You canât do any of the stuff theyâre doing in the second movie. You canât do something that upsets the movie or changes it in any way. So you really do have a guideline as to where you can go and where you canât go. When we did it earlier it was hard because we didnât know what the second movie was about, and it was constantly evolving, so the series had to constantly evolving behind it, but nowâ
ART BROWN: And itâs cool because you have a line that youâre going to, but you get to do all this. Thereâs only a few ground rules really. You canât introduce them to stuff they donât know about yet in the second movie, and anything we do introduce, like the Dragon Eye, we have to get rid of it or else theyâd be using it. The mom and Drago, stuff like that. Other than that, theyâre out in another area, and weâre free. Every once in a while if weâre not sure, weâll e-mail Dean or go out to dinner with him and say hey, are you cool with this? And 99% of the time heâll say yeah. Or maybe heâll say can you adjust it just a little bit because Iâm going to touch on something in the third movie or Iâm thinking about it.Â
Ramaâs Screen (2015):Â with Art Brown and Douglas Sloan
Art Brown: âWeâre in pretty close contact with Dean [DeBlois], the writer/director of the movies. We check with him when weâre going to do, before we do the season, we break into season, we say this is the direction weâre going to go, we donât want to step on anything, sometimes heâll say âYeah, can you adjust it? Because Iâm going to do this in the next movieââÂ
Doug Sloan: âWe had much more of an issue in the previous iteration of this show because we didnât know what the movie was really going to be so we were sort of writing in the dark but for the Netflix, going forward with Netflix, we know where the show was going because weâve seen the movie. Because our show is the prequel to the sequel, so we know everything thatâs going to happen.â
Art Brown: âWe know what we canât do in the series. We canât have Hiccup meet his mother obviously. Stoick is alive, but we can tease towards. We canât kill Stoick in the series, we can tease towards Drago or the bad guys towards the series, you get a sense that theyâre working for this big guy. Weâll set that sort of stuff up, thereâs just certain things that we stay away from but like Doug said, thatâs kind of self-explanatory, I guess.âÂ
Doug Sloan: âThe great thing is we get to introduce things like the flight suit and the flaming sword thatâs in the second movie, and how to came to be, how Stoick got a dragon, we get to put that in the series, and so the audience will know how they got from the first movie to the second movie sort of through the TV series.â
Doug Sloan: âYa, itâs great. Weâre really really lucky that we have the relationship we do with Dean [DeBlois] and Bonnie Arnold. And Gregg Taylor, heâs an executive at DreamWorks, whoâs a movie executive primarily but he also works on our show, so he really is in the loop.â
Art Brown: âYa, we check with him a lot. And if we donât have the chance to talk with Dean or Bonnie, we talk to Gregg. But theyâre so accessible, I mean honestly, âHey, man what do you think about this episode, are you cool with it?â And usually heâd say âGo with itââ
Rotoscopers (2015):Â with Richard Hamilton and Dean DeBlois
BS: Letâs go off topic for a little bit with a question for Dean. There is almost always an ongoing argument within the Dragons fandom over what can be considered canon or not if itâs in any other medium outside the feature films and shorts. Even the TV series has its âcanonâ status called into question on a regular basis. In your own opinion, what do you consider to be the official canon for the How to Train Your Dragon franchise?
Dean DeBlois: The feature film trilogy and the characters contained within it serve a narrative purpose specific to those three films, but weâve made efforts to ensure that every expansion, whether itâs in the TV series, comics, or other mediums, have a sense of tonal consistency and storytelling unity in keeping with the feature films. The only real exception is Cressida Cowellâs book series, being that her storyline focuses on a younger Hiccup and his talking, dog-sized dragon named Toothless. The feature films were a conscious departure from Cressidaâs books, in order to tell a story that had more of the tropes of a fantasy adventure. So, within the world of the films, we have tried to remain consistent in all of the expansions. The comic books will adhere to the same constraints and tone of the trilogy. The TV series and comics are meant to fill in time jumps between the films, offering insight and back-story to compliment the main narrative of Hiccupâs coming-of-age.
BS: This question can be answered by either of you. Are there any elements from the TV show (characters, plotlines, settings, etc.) that will carry over or be touched upon in the graphic novels? Similarly, are there any elements from Cressida Cowellâs original books that you want to incorporate into the graphic novels?
Richard Hamilton: The answer to both is a resounding âYes!â Part of the fun of the comics is coming up with new human and dragon characters and worlds, and part of it is mixing and matching elements from across the franchise to create new stories. How would Eret and Heather react to each other if they met? Is there a heist story to be told in the comics where the alarm system is made up of a bunch of tiny dragons?
But we have to be a little careful with the continuity, as the TV show takes place before the event of the second movie, and our graphic novels come after, so we donât want to spoil any of their awesome stories. Cressida Cowellâs series is a bit more removed from that continuity, so I think the challenge there is for us to reinterpret some of her ideas in a way that works for comics, which is a pretty tall order, since her books are just so great.
Reddit (2018):Â with Dean DeBlois
Q:Â Will there be references to Race to the edge in how to train your dragon 3 or how do you feel race to the edge interpreted what happened between the first and second movie?
A: I would agree with the latter. I would say Race to the Edge deals with what the first two movies go over. The film trilogy tends to stick to its film characters and script. Although we do tend to maintain to the universe.
Berkâs Grapevine (2018): with Dean DeBlois
Based on these interviews above, from my perspective it seems that the TV series is meant to be canon to the HTTYD movieverse from the very beginning, as it was specifically created to serve as a bridge between HTTYD and HTTYD2. The showrunners of the TV series are aware that there are limits they have to adhere to (e.g. such as not having Hiccup meet his mother before the events of HTTYD2); the fact that they have regular meetings with Dean DeBlois and Bonnie Arnold shows that they have tried to keep the series within the overall continuity and ensure that they do not step on each otherâs toes on what they can or cannot show.Â
My final comments and opinion:Â
If the TV series is not meant to be canon in the first place, it doesnât make sense for the showrunners to even bother having any meetings with Dean and Bonnie at all and for Dreamworks to market this as an interquel between the first two movies.Â
Yes it is agreed across the fandom there are inconsistencies across the show, but they are rather minor bumps compared to the overall timeline of the franchise and should not be used as a huge factor to discredit the canonicity of a work. Furthermore, what work of fiction is 100% consistent anyway? Inconsistencies also exist within a single work of fiction such as a book and movie and even within the HTTYD book series.Â
Also, I have seen some here claiming that the movie crew did not contribute anything to the TV series and I would like to point out that that is completely untrue. Other than Dean DeBlois having regular meetings with the showrunners, there are a few from the movie department such as Simon Otto (head of character animation) and Gil Zimmerman (head of layout) who have directed some episodes of RTTE. You can find their names in the credits of the episodes they directed, or refer to this link here for reference. Additionally, Elaine Bogan (who has directed several episodes) was a storyboard artist in the first HTTYD film (source).Â
Although I have presented my perspective and opinion above, I would like to iterate that Iâm not posting this to re-start the argument between those who considers it canon and those who do not, but to provide some information and clarity to those who would like to hear what was said by those involved in the making of the franchise. Whether anyone wants to accept the TV series as canon, itâs entirely their decision and there is no right or wrong in this matter. Iâve learned and accepted that fanon discontinuity doesnât just happened in this fandom, but in other fandoms such as the Star Wars and Harry Potter ones too, although some of them have gotten very vitriolic lately.Â
Despite our differing opinions and whether we want to accept the TV series as canon or not, it doesnât hurt to be civil about this and show respect to each other, so that we donât end up becoming a toxic fandom like what has already happened with the Star Wars and Harry Potter ones. It also doesnât mean that we cannot show appreciation to the creators, writers and animators for their hard work on expanding the franchise whether itâs the movies, TV series or comics, even though we do not always agree with all of their decisions made, and that they were not obliged to do this for us (the fans) in the first place.Â
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