How to Train Your Dragon

The core story still focuses on the friendship between Hiccup and Toothless, but the remake introduces noticeable identity and gender themes. Astrid is now driven by a desire to become the chief of Berk. Her character arc is reframed around fighting for female leadership and overcoming a system that favors Hiccup solely due to his family lineage and male privilege. This gender-based rivalry and power struggle is emphasized much more than in the original film, adding a modern feminist lens to the characters' relationships.

Traditional Viking culture is shown as stubborn, aggressive, and wrong in its hatred of dragons, which matches the original film. However, the remake adds a modern activist critique by reframing the tribe's leadership structure as a system of unearned male privilege. Traditional roles and family lines are criticized through Astrid's frustration with Hiccup's inheritance of the chieftainship. While the critique is not overwhelmingly dominant, it actively uses modern progressive frameworks to undermine traditional social structures.

The film makes significant, deliberate changes to established characters and lore to fit modern diversity priorities. Astrid is race-swapped and given a new feminist motivation to become chief while calling out Hiccup's privilege. Crucially, the movie updates the lore of Berk itself, changing it from a traditional Scandinavian village to a global melting pot of warriors from Asia and Africa to justify the casting. These changes directly alter the established canon of the beloved animated film and books.

The movie faced intense backlash and controversy starting from the moment Nico Parker was cast as Astrid. Massive online debates, YouTube review videos, and social media campaigns criticized the race-swap of a prominent white character and the alteration of Viking lore. The backlash grew when the actress and director dismissed fan concerns in interviews, with Parker labeling critics as people who hate inclusivity. This created a deep division between the filmmakers and a large segment of the fanbase.

The creative team has a mixed track record. Casting director Lucy Bevan actively champions diversity and gender balance in her work. Writer and director Dean DeBlois is openly supportive of subtle LGBTQ+ inclusion and pushed hard for the movie's diverse casting and lore updates. Other producers, such as Marc Platt and Chris Sanders, have very low scores and generally avoid pushing activist agendas. This results in a moderate overall creator score, with the activist elements driven mainly by the director and casting director.