Gerard Butler Will Reprise His Role As Stoick In Live-Action 'How To Train Your Dragon'

THIS… IS… still leaving some skepticism as to how good an idea it is

As Universal heads into the live-action remake realm of mining DreamWorks Animation IP, it seems they’ve found their Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, their Patton Oswalt, or their Daran Norris. Gerard Butler, who voiced Hiccup’s father Stoick in the original How to Train Your Dragon trilogy, will reprise the role in the live-action remake set for release next year.

Butler is the first confirmed cast member outside of Hiccup and Astrid, who will be played by Mason Thames and Nico Parker, since Jay Baruchel and America Ferrera would have never been believable as the live-action actors, let alone that all the characters’ aging across the animated franchise is reset back to teenagers. Casting Butler here was apparently “too good to pass up” as it allows the studio to “pay a proper tribute to the original cast”, or so is claimed.

While several of the cast reprised their roles for the DreamWorks Dragons animated series that was known with the subtitle Race to the Edge in its Netflix seasons, he was very likely too expensive at that point in his career, so Stoick was voiced by Nolan North. The character is a strong-willed Viking chief trying to raise Hiccup as a single father. He was apparently a fan-favorite. Butler is known for his action films in the Olympus Has Fallen franchise, Greenland, Geostorm and 300, along with its sequel, as well as several romantic comedies including P.S. I Love You, The Ugly Truth, and Playing For Keeps. There was also The Bounty Hunter which did both. His recent outings include Plane and Kandahar with a Den of Thieves sequel on the horizon. He’s also not the only familiar face on the production, as trilogy director Dean DeBlois is directing, writing and producing the film.

While some live-action remakes opt for cameos like Jodi Benson in The Little Mermaid or Ming-Na Wen in Mulan, there are still plenty of straight-up reprisals, including in non-remakes, like Clancy Brown in Ahsoka as Governor Ryder Azadi, who debuted in Star Wars Rebels, or Katee Sackhoff before him as Bo-Katan in The Mandalorian. Daran Norris reprised Mr. Turner in the three The Fairly OddParents TV movies that began with Grow Up, Timmy Turner!, Patton Oswalt in the 2019 Kim Possible Disney Channel Original Movie, and Brian Stepanek as Lynn Loud Sr. in the entire The Loud House franchise, including The Really Loud House and its associated TV movies. Dwayne Johnson, in announcing Moana getting the live action treatment also revealed he would be reprising his role as Maui. At DC Studios, the new DC Universe will see its cast pool shift mediums as it necessitates, and it kicks off with the animated series Creature Commandos, meaning everyone in that falls under such distinction.

The live-action How to Train Your Dragon is currently set for release on June 13, 2025, directly against Pixar’s Elio. In addition, two weeks later, it will start duking it out with the Moana remake. Marc Platt is producing for his Universal-based Marc Platt Productions alongside Marc Platt Productions president Adam Siegel. Vice President of Production Lexi Barta will oversee the film on behalf of Universal.

Source: Deadline