How to Train Your Dragon: Release date, cast, plot as first actors join live action remake
DreamWorks's beloved 2010 animation is being remade in live action
Would-be dragon riders prepare yourselves, because DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon franchise is getting a live-action remake and the cast has been revealed.
The animated film franchise starred Jay Baruchel and America Ferrera and comprised of three films: the 2010 original, 2014's How to Train Your Dragon 2, and How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World that was released in 2019.
Read more: How to Train Your Dragon live-action coming to cinemas in 2025 (Variety, 2 min read)
An epic fantasy, the critically acclaimed animation followed young Viking Hiccup, an aspiring dragon rider who develops a bond with Toothless, the injured dragon he helped nurse back to health.
Here is everything you need to know about the live-action remake.
How to Train Your Dragon release date
The live-action remake of How To Train Your Dragon is slated to be released on 14 March, 2025. The news was announced by Universal Pictures in February 2023, with the film due to shoot this summer.
What is the How to Train Your Dragon remake about?
Like the animated films, the live-action remake takes its inspiration from Cressida Cowell's children's books. The coming-of-age story charts Hiccup's quest to change humanity's relationship with dragons as coming to terms with loss and finding love.
Hiccup is not the only character to go on their own journey, as the films also saw Astrid go from being a girl who didn't like dragons to bonding with one of her own. Hiccup and Astrid's love story also forms part of the story.
It is not yet clear how closely the live-action remake will be to the animated films but Dean DeBlois is expected to write and direct, and the filmmaker helmed the original trilogy.
Who will star in the How to Train Your Dragon live-action remake?
On Wednesday, 31 May it was confirmed which actors had been cast as Hiccup and Astrid: Mason Thames and Nico Parker.
Read more: How to Train Your Dragon Live-Action Remake Finds Its Hiccup and Astrid (The Hollywood Reporter, 3 min read)
Parker most recently appeared in HBO's The Last of Us, in which she played Joel Miller's daughter Sarah, while Thames has appeared in Black Phone and For All Mankind in the past.
The two actors are the only ones to have been cast in the remake so far, but they are playing the most important characters so it makes sense that they would be confirmed first.
Jay Baruchel and America Ferrara voiced Hiccup and Astrid in the animated films.
Is there a trailer for the How to Train Your Dragon live-action remake?
Since the cast has only just been announced for the live-action remake that means filming has not yet begun, so there is no footage for fans to watch yet.
Filming is expected to begin in the Summer, so footage is likely to come closer to the film's release date.
How To Train Your Dragon (2010) is currently streaming on Netflix in the UK.
Watch: Lost audition tape for How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World