‘How to Train Your Dragon’ live-action adaptation reveals main cast

Mason Thames, who starred in the horror hit ‘The Black Phone’, and Nico Parker, who was featured in HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’, are set to star as Hiccup and Astrid, respectively, in the live-action adaptation of DreamWorks ‘How to Train Your Dragon’, which is being directed by Dean DeBlois.

The movie is on track to be shot this summer and is expected to be released on March 14, 2025.

The search for the live-action counterparts took many months of looking for actors who could grow into the roles as much as the characters themselves grew into maturity in the movie franchise.

Everything we know so far

Dean DeBlois will be spearheading the project as both a writer and director.

DeBlois wrote and directed the first movie with Chris Sanders and then took the reins solo for the 2014 and 2019 outings. This is DeBlois’ first live-action film, in which he has a great mentor, Marc Platt, the movie veteran and producer behind him.

Platt will produce via his Universal-based Marc Platt Productions alongside Adam Siegel, president of Marc Platt Productions.

It’s unclear whether Universal would seek to translate other DreamWorks Animation movies into the live-action realm.

The original trilogy

Based on the book by Cressida Cowell, ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ focuses on the special friendship between a young and unheroic Viking boy named Hiccup and an injured dragon he nurses back to health named Toothless.

The movies chronicled Hiccup and Toothless’ quest to combat humanity’s prejudice against dragons, the ache of overcoming the loss of a parent, and first love.

The franchise was unique in that each installment made jumps in the protagonists’ age to highlight life events and make it a true “coming-of-age” story.

The first ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ movie was released in 2010 and went on to earn $1.6 billion at the box office.

Each film in the trilogy was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Animated Feature Film category.