Director Dean DeBlois Explains Live-Action HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON Refines and Expands on the World

Director Dean DeBlois is stepping back into the world of How to Train Your Dragon, but this time, he’s swapping animation for live-action, and he wants to make one thing clear to fans: this isn’t just another remake.

DeBlois, the filmmaker behind the beloved animated trilogy and co-director of Lilo & Stitch, admitted to The Wrap: “I myself am not a huge fan of the animation-to-live-action trend.”

“Universal wanted to revisit this story. It’s like, ‘We’re going to do it. Let’s try to do it right. And if you’re going to get into this story, which is full of characters I love, in a world I feel attached to, then I want to be part of it.’”

He explained: “That first movie was made in a rush, and I’m super proud of it, but there are things that we could have done even better.”

Instead of reinventing the story, he saw it as a chance to refine and expand on the world he built. “My attitude was, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. We still had time and money to go a little deeper with characters, to enrich the experience, to make the action scenes, the flying, more visceral, more immersive, but also make the character relationships a little richer and deeper.”

He is looking to maintain the nostalgia of the original while adding new depth to the story and characters. He also knew that veering too far from the animated version wasn’t the way to go.

BeBlois said: “There are people who have embraced the film and feel quite protective of it.” Instead of a drastic departure, he asked himself: What if key moments were reimagined in a fresh way? One of those changes involved Astrid, played in the new film by Nico Parker.

“She’s a character with more weight and depth … you understand where she’s coming from, what she wants, her attitude toward Hiccup as being this person of privilege, whereas she’s had to work her way up.

“She comes from one of the many cultures that came together for this purpose of defeating dragons, so she’s part of the added mythology.”

To bring his vision to life, DeBlois turned to trusted collaborators, like composer John Powell, who told DeBlois: “Our fans have grown up with this movie. If we do it right, this could be a way of not only stoking that nostalgia for them, but give them something that they could share with their families now.”

He also brought in cinematographer Roger Deakins, who had advised on the original trilogy. But Deakins had stepped away from big effects movies. Instead, he directed DeBlois to Bill Pope, the DP behind The Matrix, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Army of Darkness.

“He’s just one of those cinematographers who’s so focused on story and character and actors delivering truthful performances,” DeBlois said. Pope’s “story-sense” was invaluable.

“He can read the script. He can look at actor auditions. He can look at a performance being blocked on the day and talk about what’s working and what feels false. And I really appreciated that, you know, being someone going into it as a rookie.”

The film is shot open matte for Imax, allowing the screen to expand for key dragon moments. The director explained: “It’s basically all the scenes with the dragons—if they’re training or flying or anything, that has a sense of grandeur and action to it.”

One of the biggest challenges was bringing Toothless to life. “We knew we wanted to hold onto that character and that personality, and we’d be judged pretty heavily if we went too far from it,” DeBlois admitted.

But making the transition from an animated design to a realistic creature was no small feat. “How do you take those cartoony proportions and render them into a creature that feels like it could walk through the jungle in Jurassic Park and look like it belongs?”

In figuring this out, visual effects artist John Dykstra told DeBlois to think of the animated Toothless as an exaggeration of the live-action version. DeBlois said.: “It was a really nice mentality to be in when it came to designing all of the dragons.”

DeBlois is reimagining How To Train Your Dragon with the tools he never had before. If everything goes according to plan, fans will get to experience the story they love in a whole new way without losing the magic that made it special in the first place.