The Dragon Prince – Picture: Netflix
The Dragon Prince is returning for a season 4 but not only that, is returning for seasons 5, 6, and 7 too which will round out what is being called The Dragon Prince Saga. We’re now passed two years since book 3 was released on Netflix and coming up on two years since the renewal news so where is The Dragon Prince season 4? Here’s what we know.
The Dragon Prince is a Netflix Original animated fantasy series, created for Netflix by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond. It’s no surprise how popular The Dragon Prince has become, with the former head writer of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aaron Ehasz at the helm.
With a video game also in development, The Dragon Prince has easily become one of the most successful animated franchises on Netflix scooping up awards such as an Emmy for being an outstanding children’s animated program.
But what about season 4 of The Dragon Prince?
The Dragon Prince Netflix Renewal Status
Official renewal status: Renewed in July 2020
After over 6 months of waiting, a renewal finally came at Comic-Con at 2020 (which at the time was done remotely via Zoom – see below) that the future of The Dragon Prince is secure with the creators being allowed to see through their vision through to season 7.
A huge order of animated episodes isn’t exactly unprecedented but in this instance, is a huge endorsement of the show’s performance on the streamer and what’s to come.
Each of the new seasons will consist of 9 episodes which means by the time the show concludes, there will be 63 episodes of The Dragon Prince in total.
The only possible reason the series could not be renewed (apart from the usual cost and low viewing figures issues) is due to the allegations that have been made against the series creator Aaron Ehasz. While the full truth has yet to come to light, the allegations made are that the creator of The Dragon Prince, Aaron Ehasz, has created an “abusive environment for women.” All allegations should be taken seriously, and while this may affect the future of the series, no project is worth more than any employee that has to suffer for it.
Where is The Dragon Prince Season 4 in Production and when will it be on Netflix?
Given the vast amount of time that’s passed since season 3 of The Dragon Prince, you may be wondering what exactly is going on with the Netflix show.
The first acknowledgment of the communities frustration regarding updates came in February 2021. In a post, they said:
“Our team has been working hard since the full Saga was greenlit to bring you the next phase of The Dragon Prince with care, passion and creativity. While the pandemic has impacted the process at every level, the reality is that productions of this scale always take a lot of time. We’re writing the story and scripts, assembling the production team and developing other new, exciting areas of Xadia for you to explore. Although we can’t give you a date for Season 4 at this point, we want you to know that the new seasons will be worth the wait!”
Just to add additional context to this. Netflix typically orders bit upfront orders for animated series in advance. This is the case for all Dreamwork’s output on Netflix with titles often getting double-digit episode orders. The reason this is so different from the likes of live-action is that, as the above suggests, production is incredibly different on animated titles.
An additional update then came in December 2021 (amongst other announcements) where season 4 was discussed in length.
They revealed how seasons 4 through 6 are going to be a new “phase” of the Dragon Prince saga with season 7 being a separate one too.
They dive into the complexities of building out a series like this and compared the 3-year development cycle to get seasons 1-3 out of the door. The state “We’re now following that same development pattern for seasons 4, 5, and 6—which we kicked off as soon as the series was renewed in 2020—and are spending a similar amount of time upfront to make sure we get the story arc for Phase 2 just right.”
Could that mean with the same pattern we’re not due the first set of episodes until 2023? That certainly does imply that.
They go onto add that season 4 is in full production adding:
“At this point, the scripts for all nine episodes have been written, we’ve recorded the entire season with our amazing voice actors, storyboards and animatics are complete, and we’re now in the process of fully animating each episode with our partners at Bardel Entertainment.
This last stage of development often takes the longest since it includes a variety of additional steps like modeling, lighting, rendering, compositing, special effects, sound design, and editing. We’ve still got a lot of work left before season 4 is done—so it’s a little too early to share a release date just yet—but we’re currently looking to wrap some time in late 2022 at the earliest.”
The full 2021 end-of-year update is well worth reading if you want even deeper insight into their approach to the future of The Dragon Prince.
What to expect from the fourth season?
If you haven’t watched all the third season of The Dragon Prince, we’d recommend skipping below:
First off, we do know that season 4 will also be known as Book 4: Earth.
Beyond that, the story is completely up for speculation.
Everything was shaping up to be a happy ending with the reawakening of Zym’s mother and the friendship between Humans and Elves rekindled. Viren may have died after his fall with Rayla off the mountaintop, but was brought back to life two days later by his daughter Claudia. Concerned for the whereabouts of Aaravos, Claudia pointed out the ginormous cocoon on the wall of the cave.
It’s unclear just how much power Viren was able to absorb from the baby dragon Zym, but clearly it was enough for Aaravos’ creature to enter metamorphosis. Once the creature hatches from its cocoon, it could potentially rival the power of dragons. One thing is certain though, Viren, Claudia, and Aaravos are still a grave threat.
Not so little anymore! Aaravos caterpillar was once normal sized – Copyright. Wonderstorm
The relationship between Callum and Rayla will be even more fun to explore next season after finally admitting their love for each other. It wasn’t clear at the end of the series, but Rayla still needs to recover Viren’s coins containing the trapped souls of other Moonshadow Elves.
Callum has continued to grow in strength with his magic, and will likely continue to improve his abilities. We’re expecting to see him face Viren or Claudia in a climactic fight, magic vs magic and it should be epic.
Ezran is starting to come into his own as King, and with his friends, at his side, he will make a great one. His ability to make friends with animals and other creatures will be paramount to maintaining peace between the dragons, humans, and elves.
Ezran has a special relationship with Zym – Copyright. Wonderstorm
Do you want to see another season of The Dragon Prince? Let us know in the comments below!