With writer/director Dean DeBlois returning to helm How to Train Your Dragon, what can we expect from the newly announced live-action remake?

With the announcement of a live-action adaptation of the highly successful animated feature film How to Train Your Dragon, many are quick to question the true intentions of the creators at Dreamworks and Universal. Though some scoff at the mere mention of a new reboot, there should be reasonable anticipation for the potential narratives and creative possibilities of an expanded Dragon universe.

The odds are surely stacked against Universal. Audiences and critics seem to be weary of the exhaustive effort Disney has put into their live-action adaptations. Starting with 2010’s Alice in Wonderland, Disney has repeatedly brought their animated favorites to real life with upcoming releases including Snow White, Moana, and Lilo & Stitch.

Universal has also struggled to launch an expanded cinematic universe. Their unsuccessful Dark Universe, initiated by Tom Cruise’s Mummy adaptation, failed enough to shut down the whole operation. Fast & Furious is currently delayed due to the poor box office reaction of Fast X and allegations against star Vin Diesel, and they are currently trying to get a new Jurassic Park movie off the ground. As the studio searches for its next tent pole blockbuster series, How to Train Your Dragon hopes to offer a new look on a recent classic.

Here is what we can expect from the live-action entry in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, as well as why Universal Pictures might be remaking it.

Main Cast Revealed

As soon as it was announced that Universal Pictures was looking to remake How to Train Your Dragon, speculation began on who would be cast in the now iconic roles in the franchise. It has been announced that Hiccup would be played by Mason Thames, and Astrid by Nico Parker.

Thames is a 16-year-old American actor, most well-known for his main role in the 2021 horror movie The Black Phone. He has also appeared in minor roles in TV shows such as For All Mankind and Walker. Besides How to Train Your Dragon, Thames is set to star in the indie feature Boys of Summer as well as the teen comedy Incoming. Thames seems like a face that we will see a lot in the upcoming years.

Parker is a 19-year-old English actress and daughter of actress Thandiwe Newton (Mission: Impossible 2, Westworld, The Pursuit of Happyness…) and director and screenwriter Ol Parker (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again).

Her older sister, Ripley Parker, is a screenwriter as well and has written the 2023 Netflix show Everything Now. She has been in quite a few popular works in the past few years. She played Milly Farrier in the 2019 remake of Dumbo, directed by Tim Burton and Sarah Miller, in the blockbuster HBO show The Last of Us. Other projects she has appeared in include the HBO miniseries The Third Day and Reminiscence alongside her mother.

While some might be surprised to see an actress of color play a Viking girl, it must be remembered that Astrid was voiced by America Ferrera, a Hispanic American actress. In recent years, the film industry has been taking steps towards more inclusivity behind and in front of the camera, so this is a step in the right direction!

Other announced supporting cast include Julian Dennison (Deadpool 2, Hunt for the Wilderpeople) as Snotlout, Gabriel Howell (2023 thriller series Bodies) as Fishlegs, Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, Paul…) as Gobber, Bronwyn James (Lockwood & Co.) and Harry Trevaldwyn (The King) as the twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and Gerard Butler (300) as the village chief and Hiccup’s father, Stoick. Gerard Butler was also the voice actor for Stoick in the animated franchise. He is the only known actor thus far to reprise his role in live-action.

A New Tone

With original co-director Dean DeBlois signing on to write and direct the live-action version, it’s clear the studio intends to stay somewhat faithful to the original trilogy. In fact, this is the first time that the original director of an animated film or series has been re-hired to direct a live-action remake (and DeBlois’s first live-action movie altogether).

It is clear Universal Pictures wants to do a straight remake of the original film, which, by the time the live-action remake hits theaters in 2025, will be celebrating its 15-year anniversary. While Disney has dominated the live-action remake of animated classics at the box office for most of the 2010s, it is clear that Universal Pictures wants to pull from its library of titles to cash in on those nostalgic dollars.

Similar to another childhood favorite, Harry Potter, there’s potential to make future How to Train Your Dragon movies darker and more serious as their target audience continues to mature. And this would continue a legacy first started by DeBlois when creating the animated trilogy.

By emboldening the film with a more brazen exterior and retaining the heartfelt family values of the animated series, DeBlois has all the ingredients to craft a fantasy action film as emotionally layered and exhilaratingly entertaining as a series like Harry Potter.

This would also offer a sizable replacement for the misgivings of the Dark Universe. The How to Train Your Dragon universe benefits from being more established and well-received than any of the main titles in the failed project, suggesting more promising results at the box office.

Raising the stakes of the town of Berk will definitely satisfy audiences of all ages if the live-action adaptation can live up to other sustained fantasy worlds such as Harry Potter, Narnia, or Game of Thrones.

Continuing the Franchise’s Innovation

One aspect of How to Train Your Dragon which differs from the animation style of Disney is their dedication to photorealism. Before Toy Story 4 impressed moviegoers with its immaculate image rendering, How to Train Your Dragon was pushing to replicate reality through light and color, notably by hiring award-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins as a visual consultant for the original 2010 film.

This passion for amazing visuals continued to the third installment, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World when they employed a new rendering system to support the complexity of the film’s painterly images.

Roger Deakins is not returning to serve as the cinematographer for this new film. Instead, Bill Pope will step behind the camera. Pope is best known for his collaborations with Sam Raimi, having worked on films like Darkman, Army of Darkness, and both Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3.

He also did the first three films in the Matrix franchise and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, so he has a strong eye for visuals and choreography, one that will work well with the spectacular flight sequences.

How to Train Your Dragon is known for. He also worked on 2016’s The Jungle Book, so he has experience bringing to life CGI animal characters, one that will be needed to make Toothless work in live-action.

Unlike the 2D animation in most of Disney’s properties, How to Train Your Dragon will probably have an easier time converting the whimsicality and comedy of the animation to real life since most of the original animated movies were rooted in reality.

However, a main point of intrigue will be the portrayal of the dragons. The advancements in CGI will certainly demand high expectations for a realistic Toothless, although those expectations may depend on where along the uncanny valley the animators want to land.

Will Dragon follow other films such as Sonic The Hedgehog and Pokémon Detective Pikachu, which chose to stray away from full realism, or will it follow Disney’s The Lion King (2019) and embrace reality?

How To Train Your Dragon Release Date

After delays caused by the SAG-AFTRA strikes, filming has officially begun in mid-January 2024. Universal Pictures has set the film for release on June 13, 2025, eleven years after How To Train Your Dragon 2 opened on June 13, 2014. Currently, the film is set for release on the same day as Disney and Pixar’s Elio. It will also open two weeks before Disney’s live-action remake of one of their 2010 classics, Moana.

The release date will also likely coincide with the opening of Universal Orlando Resort’s newest theme park, Epic Universe. Epic Universe is set to open in the summer of 2025, and one of the themed lands is How to Train Your Dragon: Isle of Berk. This corporate synergy should help make How to Train Your Dragon an even bigger event as Universal will be pushing it in its various theme parks around the globe, particularly one where there is a new themed attraction for it.

While the 2025 release date looms in the distance, speculation about the newly announced live-action adaptation will continue to grow and many will monitor to see if the remake can ride the momentum of the original animated trilogy.