'How to Train Your Dragon' (2025) Home Entertainment Interviews

Moviefone speaks with director Dean DeBlois, Mason Thames and Nico Parker about the home entertainment release of 2025's 'How to Train Your Dragon'.

(L to R) 2025's 'How to Train Your Dragon' director Dean DeBlois, and actors Nico Parker and Mason Thames.

Available on digital July 15th and on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray August 12th is the live action remake and box office smash ‘How to Train Your Dragon’.

Directed by original franchise filmmaker Dean DeBlois, the film stars Gerard Butler (‘Den of Thieves’) reprising his role as Stoick, as well as new cast members Mason Thames (‘The Black Phone’), Nico Parker (‘Dumbo’), and Nick Frost (‘Shaun of the Dead’).

Related Article: Movie Review: 'How to Train Your Dragon' (2025)

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of traveling to Oslo, Norway, home of the Vikings, to speak exclusively with writer and director Dean DeBlois, as well as young actors Mason Thames and Nico Parker about their work on 2025’s ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ and the home entertainment release.

DeBlois discussed adapting his own animated movie into live action, the design of the dragons, and deleted scenes, while Thames and Parker talked about joining the beloved franchise, their experience working with DeBlois and Gerard Butler, and the home release’s gag reel.

(from left) Writer-Director Dean DeBlois (left), Gabriel Howell (center) and Nico Parker (right) on the set of Universal Pictures’ live-action 'How to Train Your Dragon', written and directed by Dean DeBlois. Photo: Universal Pictures.

Moviefone: To begin with, Dean, can you talk about the challenges of remaking a live action version of your own animated movie?

Dean DeBlois: Well, I think the biggest challenge is I'm very close to it, so the benefit I think, is the distance. It was 15 years ago. I tend never to watch movies that I've worked on again. By the time we get through the whole process of mixing and coloring it and putting it out in the world, I'm kind of done. So, I had the benefit of sense memory of the movie and then revisiting the script and looking for opportunities where we could go deeper with character relationships or with mythology and leaning into even more so into the aesthetic of live action. I think those were all directions that were set in place from the very beginning. So, it meant revisiting old material through a new lens.

MF: Mason, what was it like for you to join this franchise and bring the character of Hiccup to life in live action?

Mason Thames: I mean, Hiccup is a character that means so much to me. He's always meant so much to me, so it's kind of a factor of going into it that, what can I do differently? But also keep the character the same and respect what Jay (Baruchel) did, and Hiccup's sarcasm, his wittiness, and his kind of awkward loneliness is something that makes him Hiccup. But going into it, me and Dean had a lot of time to talk about new colors that we wanted to explore. So, it was fun.

(from left) Astrid (Nico Parker) and Hiccup (Mason Thames) in Universal Pictures’ live-action 'How to Train Your Dragon', written and directed by Dean DeBlois. Photo: Universal Pictures.

MF: Nico, were you a fan of the franchise before making this film and what was it like for you to step into this incredible world Dean has created?

Nico Parker: Yes. Me and Mason both were huge fans of the animated movies. Such a huge fan. I feel like anyone in our age demographic grew up with these movies and so to get to be a part of it is amazing. I remember even just in the audition process meeting Dean and, regardless of getting the part or anything, just meeting Dean was entirely surreal because this is a person who has so much responsibility in something that has been such a huge part of my childhood. There's something kind of strange about meeting someone that has that kind of weight in your life. But he is just the loveliest and such a brilliant director and a wonderful person. So, to get to be here and doing all of this is kind of still constantly a pinch-me moment, but is very exciting. He's literally the best person on the planet.

MF: Mason, what was it like for you collaborating with Dean on set?

MT: Dean is my favorite human being ever. He's like, the sweetest. No, genuinely. You just want to hug him all the time and it's like, “Oh, personal space, Mason, remember”. But he genuinely is one of the nicest people I've ever met and such a fantastic director and filmmaker and artist. I love him so much and I trust him, which is something I value so much. He's great.

Hiccup (Mason Thames) in Universal Pictures’ live-action 'How to Train Your Dragon', written and directed by Dean DeBlois. Photo: Universal Pictures.

MF: Dean, can you talk about the deleted scenes available on the home entertainment release and why those scenes didn’t make the final cut?

DD: The two deleted scenes that we included are “Beach Break”, which is the moment that follows “Test Drive”. So, when Hiccup and Toothless are up flying in the clouds, they become detached and then reattach and fly on intuition. In the animated movie, there's a scene where they're now taking a break, just kind of relaxing, cooking some fish, and they get accosted by Terrible Terrors who try to steal the fish. It's a moment where Hiccup realizes A, dragons aren't so fireproof on the inside and B, everything we know about them is wrong. We had our live action version of that. We shot it, but we found in the edit, it was in an area of the movie where you could feel the lag, and something was weighing it down. So experimentally, we tried snipping that out thinking we're kind of telling that story anyway with other scenes and just visually through the narrative, and it survived without it. So, it allowed the pace to increase, but it also just allowed us to move on. Another one is where Astrid almost catches Hiccup red-handed at night in the blacksmith stall with Toothless. Similar, it's a cute little moment, nice little interaction, but at the end of the day, no real new information was being given to the audience and it helped with the overall pacing to remove it.

MF: Nico, I understand that there will also be a gag reel on the home entertainment release. How much fun was it being on the set, and was it hard not to laugh in between scenes?

NP: It was. I mean, Mason's so funny, and all the recruits are so funny, and the crew is so funny. I can't even believe that we made a cohesive movie with how much everyone was laughing. I remember the first time going into the arena. I remember, we turned to Mason and everyone started being like, “Who let you in?” Like belittling him, and I remember they were shooting from behind Mason's head and the whole time everyone was so funny. Harry (Trevaldwyn) is so funny, Gabe (Howell) is so funny, and Julian (Dennison). Everyone's so funny. I honestly am surprised that we even had a movie at the end of it because of how much we were breaking.

Universal Pictures’ live-action 'How to Train Your Dragon', written and directed by Dean DeBlois. Photo: Universal Pictures.

MF: Dean, can you talk about the design of the dragons, particularly Toothless? Did you want them to look like the animated versions, or more realistic?

DD: Both. We wanted to try to keep the overall silhouettes and coloring and personality traits, certainly from the animated movie, and migrate them into a more naturalistic photoreal world where these creatures feel like they could have been part of our animal kingdom. So, I think in every case, except for Toothless, we were able to go back much more to the animal references, whether it was a crocodile or a tropical bird or a big walrus or so on and so forth. But I think when it came to Toothless, he's meant to be a black panther meets a salamander, but the more we went toward black panther, the more we were losing his character. So, we found that we had to keep the big eyes and the big mouth and the ear plates as part of his personality.

MF: What was it like working with Gerard Butler again and watching him bring his animated character to life in live action?

DD: Well, I think when Gerard Butler was finally able to join us, because at first, he couldn’t do it due to his own schedule, I had such a breath of relief because I know Gerry well even off camera. So, I think we just have this free-flowing energy between us, and I credit him as co-creator of the character. He brought so much to it, the emotion, the nuance, the arc, even in the animated form. So being able to hand that to him and then let him use all his physicality, everything he can bring to the camera as an actor, embodying Stoick with all this mass and that costume. I knew it was going to be great from the start. He completely delivers. He's a force of nature.

Gerard Butler in 'How to Train Your Dragon'. Photo: Universal Pictures.

MF: Finally, Mason, what was your experience like acting opposite Gerard Butler on this movie?

MT: He's very funny, but what I love about him is, the energy he brings to set. I mean, he is Stoick the Vast, through and through. Nobody else could play that character like him. When he gets on set and he brings this raw energy to each scene, and whenever we're in that room, it's Stoick and Hiccup. Running through the scene repeatedly, it really brings something to it. He's so amazing and such an incredible actor that I love him so much. But in between takes and stuff, we all joke around and he's a prankster.

How to Train Your Dragon

"The legend is real."

PG2 hr 5 minJun 13th, 2025

Showtimes & Tickets

Watch How to Train Your Dragon Online

What’s the story of ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ (2025)?

As an ancient threat endangers both Vikings and dragons alike on the isle of Berk, the friendship between Hiccup, an inventive Viking, and Toothless, a Night Fury dragon, becomes the key to both species forging a new future together.

Who is in the cast of ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ (2025)?

Mason Thames as Hiccup
Nico Parker as Astrid
Gerard Butler as Stoick
Nick Frost as Gobber
Gabriel Howell as Snotlout
Julian Dennison as Fishlegs
Bronwyn James as Ruffnut
Harry Trevaldwyn as Tuffnut
Murray McArthur as Hoark
Peter Serafinowicz as Spitelout

2025's 'How To Train Your Dragon' will be available to own at home beginning July 15th.

Exclusive Bonus Features When Purchasing at Participating Retailers:

Deleted Scenes with Introductions by Writer/Director Dean DeBlois
Gag Reel
Love and Legacy: Making 'How To Train Your Dragon' – Go behind the scenes to see how the beloved characters and intricate fantasy world were brought to the live-action medium.
Building Berk – Walk onto the set of 'How To Train Your Dragon' and take in the scale, detail, and heart that went into building Berk.
Dreaming Up the Dragons – A glimpse at the technology, artistry, and imagination involved in bringing life-like dragons to the screen.
Fit for a Viking – Witness the elaborate transformations the cast made to embody the Vikings we see in the film.
Forbidden Friendship with Introductions by Writer/Director Dean DeBlois – Watch Mason Thames perform the full Forbidden Friendship sequence with a puppeteer in the early stages of creating one of the film’s most iconic scenes.
Test Drive with Introduction by Writer/Director Dean DeBlois – Hold on tight as we join Hiccup on his first flight with Toothless, and see the various elements that came together to construct the thrilling scene.
Exploring the Isle of Berk at Epic Universe – Explore 'How To Train Your Dragon' – Isle of Berk and discover an island where Vikings and fire-breathing dragons exist together in harmony.
Feature Commentary with Writer/Director Dean DeBlois