Bringing to live a project like the live-action remake of How To Train Your Dragon requires a lot of moving pieces to work. While fresh faces Mason Thames and Nico Parker being respectively cast as Hiccup and Astrid is one of those important components, sometimes retaining talent from the original iteration can be a huge helping hand.
That seems to be the case in director Dean DeBlois’ revamp of the franchise he helped originate, as we can now confirm that Dragon vet Gerard Butler is reprising the role of Stoick the Vast. Per the announcement from Deadline, Butler’s hiring is the latest piece to the puzzle of How To Train Your Dragon’s jump into the world of flesh and blood storytelling.
As someone who loves this series quite a bit, I couldn’t be more excited; even if this new spin isn’t a part of the 2024 movie schedule. That wait time, plus news like Gerard Butler returing, makes it hard not to think about the potential future of casting for this first installment, as well as whatever chapters follow in re-adapting author Cressida Cowell’s book series.
But for the moment, let’s put all of that aside and revel in the fact that Gerard Butler is back in the How To Train Your Dragon universe. If there was ever a practical case for bringing a legacy cast back for a live-action remake, this would have to be it. Butler’s Stoick, the chieftain of fishing village/dragon hot spot Berk, is a commanding presence, but also a caring father.
While you obviously couldn’t have Jay Baruchel, America Ferrara, or any of the other voices for Dragon’s younger leads return, the lead of Kandahar and Plane can absolutely still fit that bill. Not to mention, with a live-action version of this very movie now in the works, we just might see stunts akin to some of the feats seen in the best Gerard Butler movies actually carried out by the man himself.
All of that brings me back to those initial questions I was starting to ask after reading this news. The main concern is, of course, does this mean we’ll see other adult characters in How To Train Your Dragon retaining the actors that made them famous?
The two cases I’m most interested in answering this query for are Craig Ferguson’s Gobber the Belch and Cate Blanchett’s Valka Haddock. Fans who know the events of the rest of the Dragon trilogy understand how important that last example is, as Valka’s casting is an emotional touchstone for the next two installments. But also, casting the right Gobber feeds into the mentorship that helps Hiccup and his crew grow into riders of Berk.
I know, it’s kind of weird for the person who wrote how Dreamworks’s live-action remakes should differ from that of Disney to be digging nostalgic casting such as this. And while I’m excited to see the young talent brought in to play Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and Snotlout, I also look forward to potentially seeing some more familiar faces joining Gerard Butler back in the land of Berk. Especially since original audiobook narrator/animated cameo holder David Tennant could still be considered as well.
How To Train Your Dragon should be flying high into theaters once again, with its intended release date of June 13, 2025. At the time of this writing, readers can stream the 2010 animated original through various platforms, such as with a Prime Video subscription.