When Universal announced their latest expansion, Epic Universe, their new lands seemed fairly predictable; all licenses they’d held since public memory can tell: monsters like Frankenstein, a duplicate of their successful Super Mario lands, and a new IP in Celestial Park. This was true for all except one: the Isle of Berk, based on the beloved film and book franchise How to Train Your Dragon. Manifesting in a grand viking presence with a lagoon, special effects, and arguably the strongest design in the Epic Universe park, the question stands: why How to Train Your Dragon?
How to Train Your Dragon is a sensational DreamWorks movie franchise spanning over three films, multiple TV shows, and even more holiday specials. The first installment is DreamWorks’ highest-rated film on Rotten Tomatoes, and the dragon Toothless is an incredibly popular and recognizable character. The films grossed $494.9 million, $621.5 million, and $539 million respectively. The 2025 live-action film, produced with a $150 million budget, became the second-highest-grossing live-action/animated hybrid of all time, making $636.8 million worldwide. These figures alone could explain the appearance of the viking portal, but theme parks take five to seven years to develop, meaning the filmmakers couldn’t have even projected the live-action film’s success since it was the beginning of that development, too.
In essence, Berk was designed among the first plans for the park, meaning the live-action was developed simultaneously– and that Universal was taking a long-term cultural bet. Especially in the wake of live-action movies like Mulan (2020) only grossing $70 million against a $200 million budget, it was a risk. But this parallel development schedule held a benefit: actively collaborating with the filmmakers behind the new film as they actively studied the lore of Berk and could add to the richness of the land’s design– as well as clue the designers into any additional motifs they might be adding that diverged from the original film.
From observing the Isle, I believe that the concept of “worldability” was heavily emphasized in the development of the Epic Universe. How to Train Your Dragon’s dimension contained a defined geography, distinct architecture, creatures adaptable to real space as well as highly recognizable music. To an executive producer, those four factors would have been the golden ticket for audience engagement.
Interestingly, outside of audience analysis, How to Train Your Dragon may have also been selected due to its unique licensing model. Unlike Disney, Universal actively licenses external IP. However, as DreamWorks is a part of NBCUniversal, their method of licensing may have looked more akin to an internal partnership, simplifying the collaborative process.
With all of these factors combined, it is unsurprising that Berk is widely seen as the most complete land in the Epic Universe park. The key lesson in How to Train Your Dragon’s inclusion and execution is that world building superseded franchise size. Although not the most culturally tethered franchise, the Isle of Berk is Epic Universe’s secret weapon, most functional unit, and key to the success of Epic Universe’s marketing materials.
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