Buckle up folks — we’re flying back to Berk! Five years after DreamWorks bid a tearful farewell to Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III and his beloved scaly boi Toothless in How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Dean DeBlois is mounting an ambitious live-action reimagining of the beloved franchise for, well, not quite a whole new generation (it has only been five years), but at least a new audience who may have somehow missed one of the defining animated film series of modern times. And if the eye-widening first teaser trailer for the movie is anything to go by, then it looks like fans and newcomers alike won’t be disappointed by what DeBlois and co have in store:
Catch us going all Leonardo DiCaprio in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood watching this one. Look! It’s Gerard Butler’s Viking dad Stoick in live-action! Look! It’s Berk in live-action! Look! It’s Hiccup (The Black Phone‘s Mason Thames) in live-action! Look! It’s Toothless and Hiccup meeting in the forest clearing and giving us all the feels in live-action! Well, technically Toothless is not live-action (boo!) — but with those big green eyes and playful puppy mannerisms, all rendered immaculately by the wizards at DreamWorks, it’s close enough for us. And honestly, whilst the fact that this trailer is almost totally shot-for-shot in its recreation of the animation will give some pause, that it also recreates the *feel* of the original movies so elegantly is a promising indicator for what lies ahead.
For the few of you who’ve never seen a How To Train Your Dragon before, here’s a handy synopsis: “On the rugged isle of Berk, where Vikings and dragons have been bitter enemies for generations, Hiccup (Thames) stands apart. The inventive yet overlooked son of Chief Stoick the Vast (Butler), Hiccup defies centuries of tradition when he befriends Toothless, a feared Night Fury dragon. Their unlikely bond reveals the true nature of dragons, challenging the very foundations of Viking society. […] As an ancient threat emerges, endangering both Vikings and dragons, Hiccup’s friendship with Toothless becomes the key to forging a new future. Together, they must navigate the delicate path toward peace, soaring beyond the boundaries of their worlds and redefining what it means to be a hero and a leader.”
Boasting a stacked cast including the likes of Nico Parker, Nick Frost, Julian Dennison, and Peter Serafinowicz amongst others, writer-director DeBlois is clearly pulling out all the stops to do this film’s animated progenitors justice. And with the filmmaker promising “dialled-up stakes” in an interview with Empire for this month’s Ultimate 2025 Preview issue, it looks like the sky’s the limit for Hiccup and Toothless when our beloved boy-and-his-beast duo land in cinemas on 13 June, 2025.