Gerard Butler has swapped the recording booth for live-action armour, signing on to reprise Stoick the Vast in Universal’s forthcoming adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon, studio representatives confirmed Monday. The Scottish star voiced the Viking patriarch throughout the animated trilogy, which has earned more than $1.6 billion worldwide, and will now perform the role on set for director-writer Dean DeBlois, the architect of all three previous films.
The new version — co-produced by DreamWorks Animation and Marc Platt Productions — is scheduled to reach cinemas on 13 June 2025 after a shift from its original March slot during last year’s SAG-AFTRA work stoppage. Butler joins headline leads Mason Thames and Nico Parker, cast as Hiccup and Astrid, alongside Nick Frost, Julian Dennison and others playing the dragon-riding teens of Berk.
Production wrapped in May after a three-month shoot that split time between Titanic Studios in Belfast and coastal Northern Ireland landmarks such as Murlough Bay and the Giant’s Causeway, locations the cast praised for their “weather-beaten grandeur” in a promotional featurette released by Northern Ireland Screen. Social-media images from extras and crew have already circulated, displaying full-scale Viking longships and animatronic dragon rigs perched on clifftops.
Butler told The Hollywood Reporter he accepted the offer after reading an early draft that “deepened Stoick’s relationship with Hiccup” and allowed him to explore the character’s grief in person rather than through animation, a shift he called “both thrilling and scary”. Author Cressida Cowell, whose books inspired the franchise, welcomed the casting in a Times interview, saying Butler’s return helps guarantee “continuity of soul” as the story moves from pixels to physical sets.
Industry analysts note the project aligns with Universal’s broader summer strategy, offering a family tent-pole two weeks before Despicable Me 5 and a fortnight after Disney-Pixar’s Elio. Fan forums show cautious excitement: some celebrate seeing dragons rendered with real fire and water effects, while others worry the intimacy of Toothless and Hiccup’s bond may be harder to convey without animation.
