While signs are pointing to the SAG-AFTRA strike potentially coming to a close in the near future, the fallout is still pushing the release dates of many projects. Universal and Dreamworks Animations live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon had been set for a March 14, 2025 release, but it was announced today that it has been pushed back to June 13, 2025.
Production on the live-action How to Train Your Dragon movie was expected to begin this summer but obviously wasn’t able to get started due to the strike, so it’s no surprise that the release was pushed. Dean DeBlois, who wrote and directed all three of the animated movies, will return to write, direct, and produce the live-action movie. It was announced earlier this year that Mason Thames (The Black Phone) would star as Hiccup alongside Nico Parker (The Last of Us) as Astrid. Jay Baruchel voiced Hiccup in the animated movie, with America Ferrera voicing Astrid
The new release date for the live-action How to Train Your Dragon does have a little competition as Pixar’s Elio is set to debut on the same day. The film follows an eleven-year-old boy named Elio Solis who accidentally becomes the intergalactic Ambassador of planet Earth after being beamed up to the Communiverse by aliens for making contact.
The original animated movie takes place in a mythical Viking village and follows Hiccup, 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. It 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.