A new live-actionHow to Train Your Dragonbehind-the-scenes featurette highlights Nico Parker’s Astrid and the supporting cast. The 2025 fantasy movie is a reimagining of the beloved 2010 animated adaptation of Cressida Cowell’s novels. It focuses on an evolving, world-changing friendship between a young Viking and a powerful dragon. Thelive-actionHow to Train Your Dragonfeatures Mason Thames as Hiccup, while Gerard Butler will reprise his role from the animated feature, playing Hiccup’s dad Stoick the Vast.
Following the release of the first trailer,Universal Pictures’How to Train Your Dragonhas revealed a new behind-the-scenes featurette. Check it out below:
In the featurette, director Dean DeBlois dives into what motivated him to bring the movie into live-action while giving glimpses at the cast, the village of Berk, and its inhabitants. In the footage of the dragon-fighter training arena, Parker is joined by Julian Dennison, Gabriel Howell, Bronwyn James, and Harry Trevaldwyn as teen viking trainees Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut, respectively.The full cast can be seen in their full costumesalongside Butler as Stoick.
What How To Train Your Dragon’s Featurette Means For The Movie
The Art Direction Is A Promising Sign For The Feature
Though the live-action adaptation has been somewhat controversial,How to Train Your Dragonis shaping upto be a promising translation visually. As the movie focuses so strongly on the core relationship between Hiccup and Toothless, the latter has already been featured prominently in the footage revealed so far. The design and digital effects for Toothless area well-made blend of the stylized design of the original movie and more realistic textures.
How To Train Your Dragon Live-Action Movie Cast vs. Animated Characters: Comparison
The live-action How to Train Your Dragon movie has assembled its talented cast, and here is how they compare to their animated characters.
It is clear that this philosophy has also been applied to the human cast’s designs too. Though certain elements have been altered for realism and some themes feature alternative outfits, each look remains loyal to the animated counterpart’s silhouette and style, allowing them to still be identifiable and faithful to the source material.
Our Take On How To Train Your Dragon’s Live-Action Cast
There’s Still Plenty Of Berk Yet To Be Revealed
The live-actionHow to Train Your Dragonstill faces an uphill battle in justifying its existence to viewers. Still, it is clear that the feature isn’t just an opportunity to capitalize on a successful IP. The production design and art direction have already shown that the feature is focused on bringing the beloved cast of Vikings and dragons into live-action in waysthat honor the artists who made the original feature a success.
Despite a strong initial showing, however, there is still much of theHow to Train Your Dragonlive-action adaptation that remains to be seen.Nick Frost’s take on Hiccup’s mentor Gobber has yet to be seen, while other undisclosed roles have yet to be revealed. Additionally, there are numerous dragons that haven’t been viewed yet. As such,there is still plenty to look forward tofrom the 2025 reimagining.
How to Train Your Dragon
Cast
How to Train Your Dragon, released in 2025, depicts the story of Hiccup, a young Viking who defies tradition on the isle of Berk by befriending Toothless, a feared Night Fury dragon. Their friendship uncovers the true nature of dragons, challenging entrenched Viking perceptions and societal norms.
