CinemaCon 2025 Day 3 Recap: How To Train Your Dragon, Jurassic World Rebirth, Wicked For Good, and Masters of the Universe

CinemaCon 2025 continued for Day 3 with a full screening of the live-action How To Train Your Dragon, plus keynote studio showcases for Universal Pictures, AmazonMGM Studios, and more. So, it’s time to dive in.

How To Train Your Dragon Screening

Day 3 started out with the How To Train Your Dragon, a live-action remake of the CG-animated classic from DreamWorks Animation. At the moment, I can’t get too in-depth regarding the feature, but I can share some of my social comments on the remake.

How to Train Your Dragon does live action remakes of animated classics right. Dean DeBlois nigh perfectly adapted the original. It’s like watching a classic in a whole new experience. It exceeded all my expectations! #HowToTrainYourDragon #CinemaCon #CinemaCon2025 pic.twitter.com/XFIvowCyux

— Jeffrey Harris (@Wheeljack83) April 2, 2025

NBCUniversal Studio Showcase

After an opening sizzle reel and remarks by NBCUniversal Chairman Donna Langley, the first major showcase for the upcoming sequel, Jurassic World Rebirth. Director Gareth Edwards and stars Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali were all in attendance to showcase the film. Johannson said she’s wanted a role in the franchise for years, but Edwards joked that she was “too expensive.” Edwards and Ali also shared some banter about Ali’s two Oscar wins, and Johansson noted that she doesn’t have any. Edwards joked that the awards are “rigged!”

They introduced a new trailer for the sequel, showcasing more of the hybrid creature, the D-Rex, which looks absolutely terrifying. The trailer also revealed that a famous scene from the original Jurassic Park book by Michael Crichton has been re-purposed for Rebirth. It’s the scene where the T-Rex actually swims and gives chase to the survivors in a raft. Seeing the T-Rex enter the water and pursue the frightened humans looks like it’s going to be an amazing scene. I hope someone utters, “Of course he can swim, you little idiot!” Truthfully, I’m looking forward to this. I enjoy most of the Jurassic Park films, even the greatly maligned sequels. There’s just enough here that has me on board. Jurassic World Rebirth stomps into theaters on July 2.

Craig Robinson and Awkwafina took the stage to introduce a new trailer for The Bad Guys 2. The first film was a nice surprise in 2022, and the sequel looks fun as well. There’s a new crew of rivals for The Bad Guys, and they’ll also be heading to space for a heist. The Bad Guys 2 swipes the goods on August 1.

How To Train Your Dragon director Dean Deblois and stars Gerard Butler and Nico Parker appeared for the second time on Wednesday to announce the live-action remake of How To Train Your Dragon 2, which is flying to theaters on June 11, 2027. This is a pretty huge endorsement by NBCUniversal. They clearly have a ton of faith in the first live-action remake and seem pretty assured it will be a success by announcing the sequel’s release date before the first film is even out.

I’m totally on board with this, but only on one condition. The only choice to play Hiccup’s mother, Valka, in the sequel is Cate Blanchett. There should be no issue here. She and Butler are the same age. Butler returned to play Stoick the Vast in the live-action remake. Blanchett would bring instant prestige and legitimacy. I can’t see anyone else playing Valka in live action other than Blanchett. It isn’t just the right choice, it’s the only choice. Do the right thing, Mr. DeBlois and NBCUniversal. Call up Blanchett to translate her character into live-action for the sequel. Meanwhile, How To Train Your Dragon hits theaters first on June 13.

Marlon Wayans and Tyriq Withers appeared next to preview their film, HIM. Withers is a star college football athlete who is sidelined with an injury and gets coached by Wayans’ character, the star player he idolized his whole life. It’s a new film from producer Jordan Peele. The trailer looks like it has a psychological horror edge to it that the actors didn’t mention at first. I’m not quite sure what to make of this one yet, but it looks trippy and weird. Him tackles theaters on September 19.

Bob Odenkirk is back as Hutch Mansell in Nobody 2. In the newly revealed trailer, Mansell and his family go on a National Lampoon’s-style vacation and run afoul of a drug cartel run by Sharon Stone’s character. It looks like a goofy, violent, and over-the-top action-comedy. I enjoyed that the trailer was set to “Holiday Road,” a clear homage to the Vacation movies. The sequel punches into theaters on August 15.

NBCUniversal transitioned to a Focus Features interlude, debuting new trailers for Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia, and Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. Glad to see new films on the horizon from Lanthimos and Anderson. They look promising. The Phoenician Scheme arrives on May 30 for a limited run before a June 6 expansion. The new Downton Abbey feature, which is presenting itself as the final installment of the Crawleys, arrives on September 12. Bugonia arrives on November 7.

Next up, producer Jason Blum made a grand entrance, wearing a Freddy Fazbear costume, for some new showcases for his production company, Blumhouse Productions. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 was announced for a December 2025 release. Emma Tammi returns behind the director’s chair, and Five Nights creator Scott Cawthon writes the script. Josh Hutcherson and Elizabeth Lail from the first film are also back as Mike Schmidt and Vanessa Shelly. I wasn’t especially impressed by the first film, but the game fans enjoyed it, so a sequel comes as no surprise after the first film’s impressive success at the box office.

Jason Blum shifted the presentation to Black Phone 2. Madeleine McGraw came out to help introduce the new trailer. McGraw and Mason Thames from the first movie are back, along with Ethan Hawke?! Based on the trailer, Finney and Gwen head to a youth camp in an icy, mountainous location. It appears The Grabber is back from beyond the grave and calling a remote phone booth. The sequel appears to be leaning further into the supernatural aspects. It has more of an A Nightmare on Elm Street vibe mixed with a grindhouse horror thriller. The sequel stalks moviegoers on October 17.

Madeleine also introduced her sister Violet to preview the next Blumhouse film, M3GAN 2.0. There was also a group of thirty dancers dressed as M3GAN dancing to Britney Spears’ “Oops I Did It Again.” It looks like most of the first film’s cast are back, and the film is embracing M3GAN (Jenna Davis) becoming more of an antihero. Gemma Forrester (Allison Williams) and niece Cady now need M3GAN’s help to fight against a renegade killer android, Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno), who is based on M3GAN’s original design.

The sequel looks pretty goofy for the most part. It’s not taking itself too seriously, and it appears to be embracing the humorous, comedic aspects of the first film. It looks like a mix of Terminator 2 and Child’s Play. It looks absolutely ridiculous, but in a fun, amusing way. M3GAN 2.0 uploads into theaters on June 27.

For another killer robot feature, James Wan and Jason Blum previewed their new feature, Soulm8te. This looks like the more adult, R-rated version of M3GAN. The trailer comes off like the anti-COMPANION. A man buys an android girlfriend who goes rogue and starts killing everyone around him. Soulm8te arrives on January 2, 2026.

Universal Pictures President of Domestic Theatrical Distribution Jim Orrs came out next to hype the upcoming releases of The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2, which is due out April 2026, Minions 3 on July 1, 2026, and Shrek 5, which arrives on December 23, 2026. There wasn’t any new footage or major reveals for the animated features. It was more to hype up that NBCUniversal has these popular crowd-pleasing sequels on the horizon, coming to theaters.

Orrs also announced that Steven Spielberg has a new project in the works that will be a throwback to some of his earlier classics. He talked up Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey, which is currently in production. NBCUniversal closed out their presentation with a showcase for Wicked For Good, with director Jon Chu, producer Marc Platt, and stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in attendance. There was also a live orchestral musical interlude for the feature.

They eventually introduced a trailer for Wicked For Good, which will defy gravity on November 21. This will be the epic conclusion of the Wicked Saga. I was pleasantly surprised by Wicked, so I’m looking forward to the second act.

Amazon MGM Studios Showcase

CinemaCon 2025 festivities continued later in the day for the evening studio showcase for Amazon MGM Studios. Credit to AmazonMGM because the studio put together a fairly impressive, impactful showcase that overperformed last week, and they had a much better showing than I expected.

The first film was the upcoming sci-fi adventure film, Project Hail Mary. I knew very little about this movie before the footage that was shown, and I’m all in at this point. Based on the novel by Andy Weir, the writer of The Martian, the film focuses on Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), a molecular biologist-turned-middle-school-teacher who is brought onto a project to deal with an interstellar infection that’s eating away at the sun. In a number of years, the sun will burn out, and humanity will go extinct.

Grace reluctantly becomes the astronaut who goes on the “Hail Mary” mission to discover the source of the interstellar infection with the slim hope of saving Earth and the human race. He makes first contact with an intelligent alien, Rocky, in the process!

Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller and star Gosling were all in attendance to talk about the film. They joked that they tried to put the movie on a TV, “It didn’t fit!” I’m excited for this this one. Weir wrote this, so the science will be authentic, and it appears to have a pretty epic scope. Ryan Gosling meeting and befriending an alien looks like it will be a lot of fun. Project Hail Mary ventures into space on March 20, 2026.

Next up, Andrew Garfield, Luca Guadagnino, and Ayo Edebiri appeared live to present a first look at After the Hunt. The new trailer stars Julia Roberts as a prestigious college professor. She must deal with a fallout after her assistant (Edebiri) accuses a colleague (Garfield) of a serious crime. Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny also star. The gritty drama arrives in theaters on October 10.

Amazon MGM Studios then presented the sci-fi thriller, Mercy, starring Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson. The story follows Chris Pratt as a detective who is been arrested and accused of the murder of his wife. The Mercy system is a highly advanced AI digital court system and program that serves as judge, jury, and executioner of criminals. Ferguson portrays the face and voice of the Mercy AI system. Pratt’s character also designed the program. He now has 90 minutes to unravel the crime of his wife’s murder and prove his innocence, or he’s dead meat.

The film looks like a mix of a dystopic sci-fi-thriller with a crime drama, albeit a bit goofy. Pratt also appeared live to promote the film, placed in a Mercy chair. He calls Ferguson for help who advises him to thank the theatrical exhibitors in attendance. Eventually it works, and the chair is convinced of Pratt’s sincerity to let him go. Mercy solves the crime on January 23, 2026.

Amazon MGM previewed the upcoming comedy, Three Bags Full. Based on the book by Leonie Swann, a group of sheep teams up to solve the murder of their beloved shepherd (Hugh Jackman). Emma Thompson also stars. Did I mention this was live-action? It looks to be a heartwarming comedy that will bah in theaters on February 20, 2026.

Director Bart Layton and actors Chris Hemsworth and Halle Berry were out next to preview the upcoming crime thriller, Crime 101. The story follows the lives of four different people intersecting in this heist drama. Hemsworth is a jewel thief. Ruffalo is a detective. Berry portrays an insurance underwriter who looks to get roped into the heist. The film definitely appeared to be channeling Michael Mann’s Heat. We’ll see how it does. It’s expected to release later this year.

The Orion Pictures label makes a return for the upcoming grindhouse-style blaxploitation thriller, Is God Is. The plot follows two sisters (Mallori Johnson and Kara Young) who are seeking revenge against their evil father (Sterling K. Brown), who burned and attempted to murder them and their mother (Vivica A. Fox). Fox, Young, and Johnson all appeared live to promote the film, calling it a mix os a Greek tragedy, spaghetti westerns, and Afro Punk. It looks quirky and has a bit of that post-modern Quentin Tarantino style.

Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and Gavin O’Connor took the stage to preview the new sequel, The Accountant 2. The Accountant, Christian Wolff (Affleck), returns to uncover the truth behind the murder of Raymond King (J.K. Simmons). He teams up with his brother Braxton (Bernthal). I liked the first film, and I’m looking forward to the sequel. I like that Wolff will actually interact with Marybeth Medina this time. I’ll be checking it out when it hits theaters on April 25.

In my most anticipated event of the day, Amazon MGM revealed a behind-the-scenes sizzle reel for Masters of the Universe. While I’ve been cautiously optimistic about this live-action reboot, I was highly encouraged by what I saw. Concept art, behind-the-scenes footage, and only snippets of edited footage were shown, but everything looks promising. We saw a look at the Power Sword, some of the characters and costumes, and a little bit of Eternia. There was some on-set footage of Prince Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) and Teela (Camila Mendes) flying in the cockpit of an aircraft, which may or may not have been a Talon Fighter.

The featurette focused on the emphasis of practical sets and costumes being built for the film. We didn’t get a full reveal of Jared Leto’s Skeletor, but it looks like the film is adapting his classic look from the original 1980s action figure line. In fact, that appears to be the case for almost all the characters appearing in the future. Based on the artwork and short snippets of footage, they are faithfully recreating and adapting the original looks of the characters. Skeletor has blue skin and is completely jacked. Fisto looks like his action figure brought to life in live-action. Even Trap-Jaw looks like his original figure.

I’ve been a fan of Masters of the Universe since childhood, so I’m excited for this. I’m not crazy about the film starting on planet Earth, but I hope that’s only a minor part of the story. If most of the film is still set on Eternia, I think this can still work out. Knight is a talented filmmaker, and he clearly loves these properties. I hope he can nail the landing here. Masters of the Universe has the power on June 5, 2026.

I’ll soon return with my final CinemaCon 2025 recap for Day 4 with Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, and more!