Universal is developing a live-action How to Train Your Dragon movie for a 2025 release, with Dean DeBlois returning to write and direct.
We haven’t seen the last of How to Train Your Dragon, but this time the animated franchise will be returning as a live-action movie based on the book series by Cressida Cowell.
Deadline reports that Dean DeBlois, who wrote and directed all three of the animated movies, will return to write, direct, and produce the live-action How to Train Your Dragon movie as well. Universal has already set a release date for the project, with the movie set to be released on March 14, 2025. The casting process is already said to be underway.
The first How to Train Your Dragon movie takes place in a mythical Viking village and follows Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), a young Viking who aspires to continue his tribe’s tradition of becoming a dragon slayer. But after finally capturing his first dragon, Toothless, he learns that there is more to the creatures than he had assumed. The first movie was followed by How to Train Your Dragon 2 and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, with the three films grossing over $1.6 billion worldwide. The franchise also spawned a handful of short films, TV series, video games, and more. The last How to Train Your Dragon movie was said to bring the entire franchise to a conclusion, but the franchise has been a hugely popular one, so it makes sense that Universal and Dreamworks Animation would want to reboot it with a live-action adaptation.
The animated trilogy was done so well that it’s hard to believe that a live-action reboot of How to Train Your Dragon is needed, but hey, there’s a lot of money to be made. Disney has certainly set the bar with their wildly successful live-action adaptations of their animated classics, including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King, all of which made over $1 billion worldwide. If the live-action How to Train Your Dragon movie proves to be a success… could we see Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and other Dreamworks properties following suit?
Are you down for a live-action How to Train Your Dragon movie?