As Hiccup, the 17-year-old actor is shouldering the weight of Universal’s new live-action franchise — and living out his childhood fantasy.

The live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon has only just soared into theaters, and a sequel is already underway. In fact, it was announced back in April at CinemaCon 2025, well before the film,

At face value, this is a story about human-dragon beef, but there are plenty of messages to be drawn from How to Train Your Dragon about overcoming prejudice, and how empathy and collaboration beget better results than fighting does.