Nico Parker, who is Thandie Newton’s daughter and plays a race swapped Astrid in the upcoming live-action version of How to Train Your Dragon, recently revealed the film is “its own thing.”
Dragons: Race to the Edge
Parker spoke with Collider, where she posited there was no reason for her to not take on the role of Astrid, “I’m constantly nervous about it. But to me, there was no reason to not do it. It’s being made with such brilliant people and everyone’s so talented and everyone cares about it so deeply.”
After I spoke to Dean [Deblois] the director who also made the animated movies, I was just like, how could anyone not want to be involved in it? It’s amazing. It’s stressful, but I’m very, very excited for it to be finished and out into the world and everyone can experience it.”
Dragons: Race to the Edge
There is a pretty big reason why she shouldn’t have taken the role, the fact that she does not look like Astrid.
There’s also precedent for actors dropping out of projects because they do not look like the characters they are supposed to play. Ed Skrein was originally cast as Major Ben Daimio in the Hellboy reboot, but dropped out of the project.
He explained back in 2017, “It is clear that representing this character in a culturally accurate way holds significance for people, and that to neglect this responsibility would continue a worrying tendency to obscure ethnic minority stories and voice in the Arts. I feel it is important to honor and respect that.”
Ed Skrein speaking at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con International, for “Deadpool”, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
The film’s production studio, Lionsgate, concurred, “It was not our intent to be insensitive to issues of authenticity and ethnicity, and we will look to recast the part with an actor more consistent with the character in the source material.”
It’s unlikely Parker will drop out of the project despite the fact that she does not look like Astrid.
Astrid character biography via DreamWorks
Nevertheless, Parker went on to reveal that the film will be like most live-action adaptations, meaning Hollywood will play loose and fast with the word “adaptation.”
Parker shared, “I think it’s very much its own thing, but I’d like to think so much of that magic is also prevalent in this one. But I think it’s its own film and it’s its own interpretation and everyone has their own version of a character.”
She continued, “It’s important not to get too wrapped up, especially because the animated ones are so brilliant. It’s like, let’s not try and just do a play by play of that. And if anyone wants that, they can watch the animated ones.”
Parker concluded, “I think it’ll be wonderful, and if it isn’t, I’m having a wonderful time making it anyway. I’ll think it’s wonderful, no matter what.”
America Ferrera as Astrid in How to Train Your Dragon (2010), DreamWorks
The film arrives in theaters on June 13, 2025 and based on these comments it likely has a very uphill battle to bring people into the box office especially with Parker informing people that they won’t be getting the live-action version they are expecting.
What do you make of Parker’s comments?
Then I’ll be ignoring it as it has nothing to do with the actual “How to Train Your Dragon” universe.