Harry Potter was a smash hit about a boy discovering he’s a wizard and going to school in a magical world full of wonder and adventure. Twilight didn’t hit quite that high a note, but the story of a teenage girl who learns her classmate is a vampire and falls in love with him did quite well. The Hunger Games popularized the dystopian genre with a bow wielding teenager stepping up to survive death games, have angsty romances, and fight the power.
As far as I can tell, nothing has quite hit that same kind of high since and it may be awhile until the next truly big wave. But if it were up to you, what would the next big thing be about?
Ok lets workshop this. The bad dinos are carnivores (so that they’re scarier/more threatening/more powerful) and their riders are cruel bullies.
The good dinos are scared, because they don’t have the sharp claws and big teeth of the bad dinos, and only through MainKid’s ingenuity are they able to make plans to deal with the bad dinos, because MainKid is smart, and special, and its just that nobody paid enough attention to see it before. Just like the good dinos, MainKid suffers from low self-confidence but in the process of encouraging the good dinos recognizes their own self-worth and in the final battle, main kid bravely stands up to the bullies which gives the good dinos the last spark of encouragement they needed to fight off the bad dinos.
Then in the sequel you just have another portal open with something else spilling through. Dragons, aliens, whatever. Maybe theres 2 main kids, siblings named Trip and Sara Topp.