How to Train Your Dragon: or, How to reboot your franchise (new trailer).

How to Train Your Dragon. The animated series that soared into our hearts on the back of a slightly charred saddle and made us all desperately want our own emotionally complex death-lizard with wings. It was charming, heartfelt, full of Scottish-accented yelling and John Powell’s bombastic score. Naturally, Hollywood has done the only logical thing: taken all that magic and turned it into live-action. Because if there’s one thing that makes dragons more believable, it’s real people talking to tennis balls on sticks in front of a green screen.

Yes, How to Train Your Dragon (2025) is DreamWorks Animation’s first foray into the uncanny world of flesh-and-blood reboots. And who better to helm this bold venture than Dean DeBlois himself—the original trilogy’s writer/director, clearly unable to escape the gravitational pull of Berk and its collection of gloriously unwashed Vikings. To his credit, he seems to be doing the impossible: translating a visually expressive, emotionally resonant animated classic into something that’s not entirely soul-sucked. Allegedly.

Let’s be honest: live-action remakes of animated films tend to range from “dazzling reinterpretation” (The Jungle Book) to “why does this lion have no facial expressions?” (The Lion King). So when we heard that HTTYD was being remade, our immediate reaction here at SFcrowsnest was a long, weary sigh followed by, “Oh gods, they’re going to make Toothless look like a demonic axolotl, aren’t they?”

But then—surprise! The trailer dropped, and… it doesn’t look awful. In fact, it looks pretty good. Young Hiccup (Mason Thames) is all gangly charm and awkward genius, like someone just cloned early-2000s David Tennant and gave him a sword. Nico Parker brings the right mix of Astrid’s steely stare and reluctant affection. And Gerard Butler returns as Stoick the Vast, because clearly no one else can shout the words “You are not a Viking!” with quite the same guttural conviction.

Visually, it’s all very Game of Thrones for kids, with sweeping Northern Irish landscapes, real Viking grit, and a liberal helping of VFX dragons courtesy of Framestore. Toothless is… fine? Not quite as adorable as his animated counterpart (how could he be?), but at least he hasn’t been turned into some bizarre leathery monstrosity with human eyes. The filmmakers wisely stuck with familiar shapes and behaviours, and Hiccup’s first interaction with him is said to be recreated shot-for-shot. Nostalgia mode: engaged.

The real question, of course, is why. Why remake a film that’s already considered one of the best animated features of the 21st century? Why trade hand-drawn heart for live-action spectacle? The answer, as always, lies somewhere between “new generation of viewers” and “money, probably lots of it.” Universal’s already announced the sequel (How to Train Your Dragon 2: Flesh Redux) for 2027, so they’re clearly betting on this franchise having wings all over again.

And you know what? Maybe they’re right. There’s still something potent in the tale of a scrawny misfit who redefines an entire culture by refusing to kill what he doesn’t understand. It hits even harder in a world where fear of the unknown is trending faster than cat videos. If DeBlois can retain that message—and from early peeks, it seems he’s trying—we might forgive the cinematic necromancy.

At least Nick Frost is playing Gobber the Belch, which already feels like inspired casting. And Julian Dennison as Fishlegs? Perfect. The twins are still chaotic, and Ruth Codd’s Phlegma has the potential to be a scene-stealing oddball. Add in Peter Serafinowicz and Murray McArthur lurking in mysterious roles, and we’ve got ourselves a cast with proper fantasy chops.

Still, if Toothless doesn’t do that face—you know the one, big eyes, lowered head, slight tail wag—we riot.

So saddle up, grab your sheep-launcher, and prepare to revisit the Isle of Berk in gloriously remade 4DX (because nothing says immersive like being sneezed on by a wind machine every time a dragon flaps its wings). How to Train Your Dragon (2025) may not reinvent the wheel, but it looks set to at least ride it heroically into battle, flaming tail and all.