Toothless and Hiccup in How to Train Your Dragon Live Action

The live action remake of How to Train Your Dragon has raised more than a few eyebrows over its casting choices. Director Dean DeBlois chose to race-swap the character of Astrid, a white blonde girl in the original animated film. In the live-action version she’ll be played by Nico Parker, a mixed race actress.

 

Longtime fans of the animated film were quick to point out this major change from the original, which features a dragon-hunting viking society. But DeBlois took to Instagram this week to defend his decision to race-swap Astrid.

 

“We auditioned many actors for the roles, including actors who looked like their animated counterparts,” DeBlois said in response to a comment defending Parker’s casting. “But we chose the actors who best embodied the spirit and personality of the characters, since the tribe in this version is made up of descendants of the finest dragon fighters from everywhere the Vikings had ever traveled (which historically was far and wide — Vikings mixed with many cultures). Still, we’re crafting a fantasy, not historical fact, and all will be revealed in time. We’re not making a shot for shot remake. We just struck close to key moments to honor the original — which I remain very proud of. The tease features a few of those moments. Instead of a completely new tale, we aimed to embellish and deepen, without abandoning the story that fans love.”

But many fans of the original weren’t convinced.

 

“Instead of casting an actual blonde Swedish or Norwegian girl to play Astrid, they had had to cast a black girl to play a white viking for absolutely no reason,” an X-user stated. Of course, the comments on this post are filled with people calling the original poster a racist.
Stoick in the live action How to Train Your Dragon

Stoick the Vast in the live action version of How to Train Your Dragon – YouTube, Universal Pictures

It’s in these moments that we truly see Hollywood hypocrisy at play. There were cries of racism and bigotry from supporters of this decision, touting the casting as a great step for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). However, in the spring of 2023, the same crowd celebrating this change was attacking Disney over the casting of Nani in the upcoming live action remake of Lilo and Stitch.

It wasn’t that Sydney Agudong, the actress Disney tapped to play the older sister of Lilo, wasn’t Polynesian. The actress is of mixed-race Caucasian, Fillipino, and Polynesian descent.

It was that she wasn’t dark enough, according to many loud detractors on X (Twitter at the time).

 

“Not being indigenous or from a PoC community, it may not be easy to see a problem with this casting,” one X-user wrote. “But within our communities this is a big issue. No offense to Sydney, but Nani is Indigenous Hawaiian with strong features and dark skin. This casting is blatant colorism.”

It should be noted that vikings are also deeply rooted in Norwegian culture and also had very recognizable features.

 

“It’s 2023,” another user declared. “Stop glorifying Eurocentric beauty standards in the name of erasing characteristics and features integral to ethnicities, especially in terms of representation.”

What do you think of the decision to race-swap Astrid in How to Train Your Dragon? Is it comparable to the controversy that surrounded casting a light-skinned Polynesian girl to play Nani? Sound off and let us know!