The How To Train Your Dragon live-action remake is not going to diverge too far from the original animated movies, as it already has several key connections to them. DreamWorks turned the How To Train Your Dragon books by Cressida Cowell into a popular animated franchise during the 2010s. The overall success of the original trilogy left DreamWorks and Universal to figure out how else the franchise could live on after How To Train Your Dragon 3‘s ending. It was ultimately decided that the best option was to copy Disney and do a live-action How To Train Your Dragon remake.
Remaking How To Train Your Dragon in live-action will come with its own set of challenges and risks. As is the case with almost all remakes, this includes a fear that the new version will be worse than the original and even tarnish the legacy of the property in the process. It would be understandable for those same concerns to exist with How To Train Your Dragon, as bringing Hiccup and Toothless’ story to live-action could go wrong. The good news is that the live-action remake holds a few major ties to the animated films, which makes it quite exciting.
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How to Train Your Dragon’s live-action adaptation faces 8 big challenges, but they all have viable solutions that can help it succeed anyway.
How To Train Your Dragon’s Live-Action Remake Is Directed by Dean DeBlois
The biggest connection between the original animated movies and How To Train Your Dragon‘s live-action remake is director Dean DeBlois. He co-directed the first animated movie with Chris Sanders, but DeBlois was then solely in charge of the two sequels. It is his role as director that made him the architect of the entire franchise, ensuring that the story remained enticing and the quality of the films stayed very high. Working on the How To Train Your Dragon movies for almost a decade also meant that he developed a deep love for the characters.
By having Dean DeBlois return to direct the live-action remake, How To Train Your Dragon should be quite reminiscent of the original animated movies. There are certainly parts of the previous adaptations that DeBlois probably would like to improve or change, but any differences between the live-action and animated movies will be born out of a desire to make the new film even better. DeBlois knows better than anyone why audiences connected so well to the previous movies. The live-action remake should have a stronger chance of doing the same with him aboard.
Gerard Butler Is Returning As Stoick In How To Train Your Dragon’s Remake
There is also crossover with the cast thanks to Gerard Butler’s How To Train Your Dragon return. Live-action remakes of animated movies rarely retain the original voice actors, and that will mostly be true when it comes to How To Train Your Dragon as well. The likes of Jay Baruchel and America Ferrera will not play live-action Hiccup and Astrid, for example, as they are far older than their teenage characters. The same goes for Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. However, Gerard Butler is the rare exception as he will reprise his role as Stoick.
The decision to keep Gerard Butler around for the live-action remake is a great sign for How To Train Your Dragon. It not only gives the film a major box office star, but it also ensures that there will be some familiarity with the characters. It’s unclear if Gerard Butler’s live-action Stoick will look exactly like the animated character, but the voice will be the same. This should make it easier for audiences to settle into the live-action retelling by having a familiar presence like Butler’s Stoick around.
How To Train Your Dragon’s Original Composer John Powell Is Returning
The other How To Train Your Dragon connection between the live-action remake and the animated movies is composer John Powell. The longtime film composer had a strong relationship with DreamWorks and animated movies before tackling the fantasy Viking story. However, it is his work on the How To Train Your Dragon movies that remains some of the best work of his entire career. It could have been quite easy for DreamWorks and Universal to court a “bigger” name to score the live-action remake, but John Powell’s music is too important to the franchise to give to someone else.
The great part about John Powell’s return for the How To Train Your Dragon live-action remake is that it guarantees the key themes and songs from the animated movies will certainly be retained. Memorable pieces like “Test Drive” should absolutely be heard again as Hiccup and Toothless fly together for the first time in live-action. Of course, Powell will also surely find ways to build on the incredible music he’s already made and make it even more emotional and epic when possible. Hearing those familiar tunes will certainly help How To Train Your Dragon‘s live-action remake feel like the originals.
