A new live action How to train your dragon Behind-the-scenes featurette highlights Nico Parker’s Astrid and the supporting cast. The 2025 fantasy film 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. The live action How to train your dragon features Mason Thames as Hiccup, while Gerard Butler will reprise his role from the animated film, playing Hiccup’s father, Stoick the Vast.
After the release of the first trailer Universal Images‘ How to train your dragon has 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 film to live action, while giving insight into the cast, the village of Berk and its inhabitants. In footage of the dragon fighter training arena, Parker is joined by Julian Dennison, Gabriel Howell, Bronwyn James, and Harry Trevaldwyn as teenage Viking trainees Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut, respectively. The full cast can be seen in their full costumes alongside Butler as Stoick.
What the How to Train Your Dragon featurette means for the film
The art direction is a promising sign for the film
Although the live-action adaptation was somewhat controversial How to train your dragon is shaping up to be a visually promising translation. As the film focuses heavily on the central relationship between Hiccup and Toothless, the latter has already featured prominently in the footage revealed so far. Toothless’ design and digital effects are a well-done mix of the original film’s stylized design and more realistic textures.
Of course, this philosophy was also applied to the designs of the human cast. While certain elements have been altered for realism and some themes feature alternate clothing, each look remains true to the animated counterpart’s silhouette and style, allowing them to still be relatable and faithful to the source material.
Our Take on How to Train Your Dragon’s Live Action Cast
There is still a lot of Berk to be revealed
The live action How to train your dragon still faces an uphill battle in justifying its existence to viewers. Still, it’s clear that the feature isn’t just an opportunity to capitalize on a successful intellectual property. The production design and art direction have already shown that the film focuses on bringing the beloved cast of Vikings and dragons into live action in ways that pay homage to the artists who made the original film a success.
Despite a strong early showing, however, there is still much of the How to train your dragon live-action adaptation that remains to be seen. Nick Frost’s take on Hiccup’s mentor Gobber remains to be seen, while other undisclosed roles have yet to be revealed. Additionally, there are several dragons that have yet to be seen. As such, there’s still a lot to look forward to of the 2025 reimagining.
Source: Universal Images