AceShowbiz -

"How to Train Your Dragon 3" is no longer scheduled to come out in two years. DreamWorks Animation announced on Tuesday, September 2 that the sequel had been pushed almost a year back, from its original June 17, 2016 date to June 9, 2017.

In the press release, the studio also announced that the same creative team behind the first two films, writer/director Dean DeBlois and producer Bonnie Arnold, would back up the new film. The cast which includes Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera and Cate Blanchett also returns as the voices of Hiccup, Astrid and Valka respectively. The studio left no spoiler for the story plot.

DeBlois previously discussed the third installment, saying, "...And the intention is to be very conscious of where we came from in the first movie and where we're heading in the third. So I've been working on a running outline for sometime and I know we're going to get to the point where Cressida Cowell books start which is Hiccup, as an adult, looking back on his life and saying 'There were dragons when I was a boy.' "

He continued, "There's something really powerful and emotional about that that hits you in the gut. And I think it could be bittersweet and beautiful. But how they disappear? What happened and what leads them to that point? That's the stuff of the third movie. We're always very conscious to make sure the threads we're pulling forward are from the first film and paying off in the second are also embedding storylines for the third."

"How to Train Your Dragon 2" performed modestly at the box office. It hit the $600 million milestone across the globe with China contributing $50 million.