‘How to Train Your Dragon’ is making the transition from animation to live-action with a remake coming to theaters 15 years later. Original director and series creator Dean DeBlois is directing the live-action version, which also features original star Gerard Butler reprising his role as Viking ruler Stoick. Speaking to ComicBook about his role in ‘Den of Thieves 2: Pantera,’ which hits theaters in January, Butler talked a bit about the challenge of taking the same character from animation to live action.
Along with DeBlois, Butler is the only ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ star to make the transition to live action, voicing Hiccup’s father in the animated films.
“It’s a bit of many things, there’s always a little bit of weirdness but there was also a huge amount of challenge, anticipation, excitement,” Butler told. “One thing I’d always done when I was making the animated movies is see this animated character and go, ‘My god, imagine if I actually had to be him. Imagine I actually had to be that voice and those expressions and how he moves.’ And suddenly they went, ‘We want you to do that.’ So it was a challenge to make him so big and strong, but then also in a way where it’s not completely caricature so that an audience can come into the different layers of that character and his relationship with his son.
“But also to be in those worlds for real, which is what I love about making movies,” he continued. “You jump into these worlds that we make up and that’s fun. But obviously, ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ is an epic example of stepping into these worlds.”
In a recent interview with Collider, ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ star Julian Dennison has revealed the team is working hard to stay true to the original, unlike ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender,’ which took numerous creative liberties.
According to Dennison, who will star as Fishlegs Ingerman in the movie, ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ promises to remain faithful to the narrative. He assured fans about the team’s effort to stick to the story and steer clear of unnecessary changes.
‘How to Train Your Dragon’ will be released on June 13, 2025.
