On June 13, Universal Home Entertainment released the fourth installment of the Dragonheart series, Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire.

It continues the adventures of a benevolent dragon named Hissyoxyillammochogannatoss—“Drago” for short, with Patrick Stewart taking over the role originally voiced by Ben Kingsley in the third film.  Drago’s mission is to improve human-dragon relations and to this end, he has nurtured seven dragons to adulthood. 

Drago has also split his heart with a human, Gareth, which creates a bond between the two.  What one feels, so does the other.  Gareth becomes king, and for the rest of his life, shepherds Britannia into a golden age of progress.  The seven dragons are honored with murals, shown here:

This image I found from a different source, but I believe this fellow’s name is Zilant:

Pretty cool-looking, aren’t they? We can only hope Universal can ante the budget to accommodate these creatures with ample screen time and give us adventures for each. After all, there’s a whole planet for them to roam. And they may have their own offspring. A lot of potential, here.

In Dragonheart 4, we learn Gareth’s twin grandchildren, Edric and Meghan, inherit powers derived from the dragon’s “heartfire.”  Edric has the strength of three men; Meghan can manipulate flames.  Alas, the siblings have a falling-out.  When Gareth dies, the siblings engage in a struggle to control the kingdom, with Meghan recruiting treacherous Vikings to her cause.  It’s up to Drago to help restore peace to the family, and peace to the kingdom.  If he fails, not only is the kingdom doomed, he fears his soul will be rejected by the Great Dragons in the Stars.

We can’t have that happen, now, can we?

Universal and the writer/producer, Matthew Feitshans, hope the film is successful enough to warrant further stories, eventually leading to a remake of the first Dragonheart film.  Here’s ten minutes extracted from the opening:

Interesting, isn’t it, that three of the Dragonheart dragons are voiced by real-life knights: Sir Sean Connery, Sir Ben Kingsley and Sir Patrick Stewart. That’s a tradition I hope will continue for the sequels.

Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire, rated PG-13, is now available on DVD, Blu-Ray and on Netflix.