Image: Lionsgate

Dreamworks’ live-action remake of How to Train Your Train Dragon has added an old new face to its cast. Gerard Butler, who voiced the viking chief Stoick the Brave across the animated films, will reprise his role as the remake’s flesh-and-blood version.

Per Deadline, getting Butler on board for the remake was an intentional move on part of the creators, which includes trilogy director Dean DeBlois.

Adding him gives the movie some extra legitimacy and pays tribute to the original voice cast, whose stars—comprising of Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Cate Blanchett, and others—may not be able/willing to pop in for a cameo.

It’s a move taken out of Disney’s remake playbook: bring back a film’s original actor for either a quick cameo or a sizable role, as we’ve previously seen with Mulan, The Lion King, and the eventual Lilo & Stitch remake.

This is the first real bit of casting news for the Dragon remake, which signed on Mason Thames and Nico Parker as respective leads Hiccup (aka, Stoick’s son) and Astrid last May.

Because of the Hollywood strikes, the movie shifted its planned production start from this past August to an unannounced date. At present, the remake is scheduled to release on June 13, ,2025 after it was bumped out of its original March 14 release.

During their heyday, the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy were some of the best animated movies of the 2010s, and the voice cast played those roles extremely well.

Since the remake won’t be out for another year and change, it may be worth rewatching that original trilogy again over on Peacock to re-familiarize yourself with everything, and to prepare yourself if they get a green light to adapt the second movie.