{"id":240447,"date":"2026-01-16T01:50:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T01:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/240447\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T01:50:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T01:50:18","slug":"how-to-train-your-dragon-2-confirms-another-star-from-the-animated-movies-will-return-for-live-action-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/240447\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Train Your Dragon 2 Confirms Another Star From the Animated Movies Will Return for Live-Action Series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For well over a decade, Disney has found success remaking popular animated movies in live-action, so it wasn\u2019t surprising when other studios decided to follow the trend. DreamWorks made the leap last summer with a reimagining of <a href=\"https:\/\/comicbook.com\/tag\/how-to-train-your-dragon-live-action\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">How to Train Your Dragon<\/a>, which earned positive reviews and <a href=\"https:\/\/comicbook.com\/movies\/news\/how-train-dragon-live-action-box-office-record-opening-weekend\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">broke franchise box office records en route to a $636.3 million worldwide haul<\/a>. How to Train Your Dragon wasn\u2019t as big of a hit as fellow live-action remake Lilo &amp; Stitch, but Universal was clearly pleased with the results. The studio wasted no time in giving a How to Train Your Dragon 2 remake the green light, scheduling it for 2027. Before production starts, casting is underway, and a familiar face is coming back to the franchise.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/film\/news\/cate-blanchett-how-to-train-your-dragon-2-live-action-movie-valka-1236632505\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Variety<\/a>, Oscar winner Cate Blanchett has been cast in How to Train Your Dragon 2. She will reprise her role of Valka, Hiccup\u2019s mother, the character she voiced in the original animated films. Coincidentally, this means that both of Hiccup\u2019s parents are portrayed by the same actors in both the animated and live-action versions of How to Train Your Dragon. Gerard Butler returned to play Stoick the Vast in the remake, and he will also be in the sequel.<\/p>\n<p>Bringing Cate Blanchett Back for How to Train Your Dragon 2 Is Perfect<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"576\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/How-to-Train-Your-Dragon-2-Valka.jpg\" alt=\"How to Train Your Dragon 2 Valka\" class=\"wp-image-1578678\"  \/>Image Courtesy of DreamWorks<\/p>\n<p>Valka is a very important character in the How to Train Your Dragon 2 story, so it was pertinent for the filmmakers to find a strong actor for the remake. In that respect, there wasn\u2019t a better option available than Blanchett, an incomparable talent who\u2019s already proven she has what it takes to deliver compelling performances as Valka. Her debut in the original animated How to Train Your Dragon 2 was a highlight, establishing Valka as one of the most fascinating figures in the series. Having lived most of her life amongst the dragons and learning so much about them, she\u2019s is a well-rounded character full of heart, and Blanchett certainly has the range to convey all aspects of Valka.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no limit to what Blanchett can do. She has an incredibly diverse filmography, highlighting her ability to seamlessly jump from genre to genre. She\u2019s earned awards for her performances in dramas like The Aviator and Blue Jasmine, but she also isn\u2019t out of her element in big-budget genre pictures. Over the course of her career, Blanchett has appeared in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Thor: Ragnarok, and more. While animation is obviously a different medium than live-action, Blanchett has plenty of experience with fantasy films and is an exciting addition to the How to Train Your Dragon 2 cast.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019ll be interesting to see how Blanchett translates Valka to live-action. Since the first How to Train Your Dragon was a faithful reimagining, odds are that is the formula the sequel will follow. This means Blanchett\u2019s performance should be quite similar to her voice-over role from the original, only perhaps a little more grounded to account for the shift to live-action. There still could be some notable differences in the portrayal. In Butler\u2019s first go around as the live-action Stoick, <a href=\"https:\/\/comicbook.com\/movies\/news\/how-to-train-your-dragon-live-action-review\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he was able to lend a greater sense of depth in some moments<\/a>. Blanchett should be able to do the same, ideally elevating the remake to another level.<\/p>\n<p>It hasn\u2019t been confirmed if How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World will also receive a live-action remake, but odds are that\u2019s very much in the cards. As long as How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a hit, Universal will want to keep the franchise going. <a href=\"https:\/\/comicbook.com\/movies\/news\/how-to-train-your-dragon-live-action-spinoff-dean-dean-deblois\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Director Dean DeBlois has previously commented on the idea of live-action spinoffs<\/a>, but a straight remake of the third film, bringing the trilogy to a close, is the most logical next step. This means Blanchett should be in line to return for The Hidden World, which is great news.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/forum.comicbook.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">ComicBook Forum<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For well over a decade, Disney has found success remaking popular animated movies in live-action, so it wasn\u2019t&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[4279,146,129434,129435,85,46,397,53913],"class_list":{"0":"post-240447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-cate-blanchett","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-how-to-train-your-dragon-live-action","11":"tag-how-to-train-your-dragon-2","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-regular-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}