Universal Pictures has announced the studio will release a live-action adaptation of DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon franchise on March 14, 2025.
For more than a decade, DreamWorks Animation‘s epic animated film trilogy about the friendship between a young man and his dragon has moved, inspired and delighted audiences worldwide.
Now, a new live-action adaptation of the blockbuster How to Train Your Dragon franchise will transport audiences for the first time into a new cinematic experience and a bold, thrilling new chapter in the beloved story of Viking Hiccup and his Night Fury dragon, Toothless.
The film will be written and directed by three-time Academy Award nominee Dean DeBlois, who has written and directed all three films in animated trilogy.
Consisting of How to Train Your Dragon, How to Train Your Dragon 2, and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, the films are based on the best-selling books series (buy now at Amazon) by Cressida Cowell.
The first film was released in 2010 and grossed $495 million worldwide. The second installment followed in 2014 and earned $621.5 million, while the third opened in 2019 and took in $524.6 million.
The live-action film will be produced by three-time Oscar nominee Marc Platt (La La Land, Bridge of Spies), Dean DeBlois and Emmy winner Adam Siegel (2 Guns, Drive).
The How to Train Your Dragon have received four Academy Award nominations and won the Golden Globe award for How to Train Your Dragon 2.
In Cowell’s original novel, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third is a smallish Viking with a longish name.
Hiccup’s father is chief of the Hairy Hooligan tribe, which means Hiccup is the Hope and the Heir to the Hairy Hooligan throne – but most of the time Hiccup feels like a very ordinary boy, finding it hard to be a Hero.
In the first book, “Hiccup must lead ten novices in their initiation into the Hairy Hooligan Tribe. They have to train their dragons or be banished from the tribe forever!
“But what if Hiccup’s dragon resembles an ickle brown bunny with wings? And has no teeth? The Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus is stirring and wants to devour every Viking on the Isle of Berk…
Can Hiccup save the tribe – and become a Hero?”
The movies featured the voices of Jay Baruchel as Hiccup, Gerard Butler as Stoick the Vast, America Ferrera as Astrid, Craig Ferguson as Gobber, Jonah Hill as Snotlout Jorgenson, and Kristen Wiig as Ruffnut Thorston.
There’s also Cate Blanchett as Valka, Kit Harington as Eret, Justin Rupple as Tuffnut, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fishlegs.
Mirko Parlevliet has been reporting on the entertainment industry since 1998 and founded Vital Thrills to cover the latest streaming, movie, TV, and game news.