There’s been a lot of debate about how many popular animated films have been brought into live action in recent years. Some of these are beloved by fans; others have had a less-than-stellar response. Director Dean DeBlois recently told CinemaBlend he was “certainly worried” about the reaction after people saw How To Train Your Dragon live action for the first time, but he spoke to me about the moment he knew the movie was working in front of a crowd.
How To Train Your Dragon’s live action edition doesn’t officially hit the 2025 release schedule until June 13th, but some lucky fans were able to screen the movie during its first showing in front of a live audience at CinemaCon earlier this year. The good news? Director Dean DeBlois called the early premiere “a test,” one he was happy to report the movie nailed the (dragon) landing on.
CinemaCon was, for us, a test. Sort of put it out there in front of a bunch of people and let them react. they could be as honest as they want to be. Luckily they were positive; we were getting a lot of positive remarks about it. People seem to be happy that we didn’t desecrate the source movie and that we added to it in places.
The cast and creative team were on hand to see how it all played out, as was I, and a few weeks later I was able to talk to them about showing the movie as part of the opening of How To Train Your Dragon-Isle of Berk at Epic Universe. We spoke on the blue carpet about the visceral reaction to the movie in the room, and to be candid, many people were emotional coming out of the first screening of the live action film.
Myself and my coworker cried during multiple moments, and DeBlois admitted to me that he feels that’s the exact measure of success he’s hoping for when he puts a movie out into the universe.
To me [crying] is a measure of success. When someone says I almost cried, I feel like, ‘Oh, well we almost succeeded. I think clapping is great, any expression of euphoria is great, but tears, you have to earn those. It’s hard to be sentimental and expect people to genuinely cry. So if you get people tearing up that’s the whole emotional rollercoaster of [making a movie]. Bring them to tears … and cheers.
In fact, there was one scene -- and really this is no spoiler-free -- that really cemented their confidence in the movie.
There Was One How To Train Your Dragon Scene That Helped The Creative Team Feel Like They’d Really Done It
Producer Adam Siegel also called premiering the movie “a scary moment,” given the context. Honestly, you never know how an audience will react to the labor and love the creative team put in for months and month. There was one sequence that you can actually see part of during the How To Train Your Dragon live action trailer that the team was waiting with baited breath for to see what the response would be. Siegel told me:
That test drive was a sequence that we’re tremendously proud of because we wanted to really try to push flying to a new level, and give people the experience they remembered. I feel like when people started to clap, and it felt like, ‘We really did it,’ it really washed over all of us nicely.
I've been telling people How To Train Your Dragon Live Action feels a bit like a cross between the animated movie and Avatar, and the flying sequence in question is the moment that really cements that take for me. The studio is so bullish about the movie they put together, they are already looking to the future. A second film in the HTTYD franchise has been greenlighted, and DeBlois has revealed another cast member he'd like to see return.
If you want to get even more “Live” with the franchise, you can visit How To Train Your Dragon land at Epic Universe, which features some unexpected touches and is officially open to the public. Everything's coming up dragons!
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