Hiccup and Toothless are taking flight again. In a huge show of confidence from Universal, How To Train Your Dragon is getting a live-action sequel to a film that hasn’t even been released yet. The news was announced today at CinemaCon in Las Vegas — attended by Collider‘s Britta DeVore — where star Gerard Butler made the announcement on stage alongside director Dean DeBlois and co-star Nico Parker. The sequel has been set for June 11, 2027.

Franchise mainstay DeBlois will be returning to direct along with castmembers Mason Thames as Hiccup and Parker as Astrid. DeBlois, who has been a key figure with the franchise since its start, wrote and directed this year’s How to Train Your Dragon that is based on the 2010 project that he co-directed with Chris Sanders.

The Live Action ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ Will Me “More Scary”

In a recent conversation with The Direct, Butler shared that the live-action film will have a scarier edge compared to its animated predecessor, thanks to the heightened realism that live action allows. He also spoke about the “goosebumps” he experienced while watching the movie come to life.

“I just saw a rough cut. So there really were maybe 20% special effects done. And I get goosebumps when I think about it. It was so amazing and so powerful. And then you see parts of it where they are closer to being done, and your jaw just drops.

And the best way for me to describe it is, I made three of those movies over many years, and I always wondered, I love the animated movies, but I always wondered, ‘God, what if this was real? What if we were really there, real people, real dragons?’ And we had a chance to do that, to make it real. And I think that is one of the main differences.

Alongside Thames, Butler and Parker, the movie will also feature Deadpool 2 veteran Julian Dennison, with Skeleton Crew star Nick Frost starring as Gobber. Other names attached to star in the live-action How to Train Your Dragon movie include Gabriel Howell, Harry Trevaldwyn, Ruth Vodd, Murray McArthur, Samuel Johnson, and Nick Cornwall.

How to Train Your Dragon premieres in theaters on June 13, 2025. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates on the sequel to How to Train Your Dragon, set to soar into theaters on June 11, 2027.

via Collider