‘How to Train Your Dragon’ is getting the live-action treatment

When a franchise finds its start in any form of animated medium, history dictates that adapting it to live-action often ends up having… mixed results. However, that isn’t stopping Universal from taking a swing at bringing How to Train Your Dragon to the real world. 

We can hopefully take solace in the fact that this adaptation appears to be in safe hands, with original writer and director Dean DeBlois returning to call the shots for the live-action How to Train Your Dragon film, slated for release in 2025, Variety reports. 

The live-action version of the popular film joins an ever-expanding roster of How to Train Your Dragon’-related media, including three animated films (How to Train Your Dragon, its sequel, and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World), and three TV series (DreamWorks Dragons, Rescue Riders, and The Nine Realms). 

While janky live-action adaptations more often than not tend to spring forth from the anime world (looking at you, Death Note), for the sake of our childhoods, we’ve got our fingers crossed and are hoping this take on the beloved film bucks the trend. At the very least, Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon appear to be proof of concept.

If it ends up succeeding, we wonder if it will only be a matter of time before we end up with a live-action Shrek reboot. Oh, the horror and/or joy that would bring. Nevertheless, DreamWorks has come up with various iconic animated film franchises over the years – find out how we think How to Train Your Dragon stacks up against its equally-weighty peers.