'How to Train Your Dragon' live-action remake casts its Hiccup and Astrid
Get ready to meet the live-action counterparts of How to Train Your Dragon's Hiccup and Astrid!
Universal Pictures has found its actors for the live-action adaptation in Mason Thames and Nico Parker, who gained prominence for starring in The Black Phone and The Last of Us respectively.
According to reports from The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline, the pair will portray the film's two lead human characters Hiccup, the awkward son of the village chieftain who eventually befriends a dragon, and Astrid, who is Hiccup's fellow student in dragon training and his love interest.
Thames, who is 15 years old, is already establishing himself as a rising star in Hollywood after he starred in the supernatural horror film The Black Phone along with Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke, where he plays a young boy who's being held in a soundproof basement by a sadistic, masked killer.
Parker meanwhile made her film debut in the live-action remake of Tim Burton's Dumbo before she went on to be cast in HBO's post-apocalyptic drama series The Last of Us, based on the video game of the same name.
Announced in February, the upcoming adaptation of How To Train Your Dragon has the original director Dean DeBlois returning to work for the film.
Based on Cressida Cowell's 2003 book, the story tells the adventure of two unlikely best friends, Hiccup and Toothless. The pair initially had a hostile relationship as Hiccup's village has people fight with dragons for a living, but his dream to become a true Viking changed when he met an injured Toothless and restored him back to health.
They eventually became best friends and managed to change the long feud between the Vikings and the dragons.
The original animated version spawned two sequels, released in 2014 and 2019. Afterwards, three television series were made, namely DreamWorks Dragons, Rescue Riders, and The Nine Realms. It also had its short film, Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury.