BY
Tristan Low

Videographer

Hype Issue #70

Published on

Aug 1

2025

Join Tristan Low as he explores what makes a successful live-action adaptation.

When Dreamworks announced that Nico Parker, a biracial British actress, would play Astrid in the live-action How to Train Your Dragon (HTTYD), the internet erupted into a frenzy. Critics made claims like “Her hair looks worse than I thought”, and “Modern Hollywood has replaced her because they are swept up in 21st-century obsessions”. Yet when audiences actually watched the film, at a point where some still disliked the casting decision, many found themselves surprised. “I really enjoyed it,” says Ms Andrea Gan, a 19-year-old university student. “She portrayed Astrid really well, and what matters more is how well the actor fits the character’s personality.” While casting can undoubtedly affect fan expectations of live-action remakes, is casting choice the only thing that defines a live-action remake?

Reactions to the First look of Nico Parker as Astrid in the HTTYD. Photos taken from Reddit, edited by Tristan Low 

Beyond the Surface

To put it simply, while casting actors who look similar to the original characters is a safe way to go, as seen in the examples of Emma Watson as Belle in the Beauty And The Beast live-action adaptation, or Mena Massoud as “Aladdin, it’s not the be-all end-all in whether an adaptation flops or not. 

The weight that an actor’s appearance or cultural background carries, however, can depend on the movie’s context. For Aladdin, the film is heavily rooted in middle eastern culture. With the city of Agrabah being based on a Middle Eastern city, fans would expect the actor who plays Aladdin to be someone of Middle Eastern descent. Ms Cannan Srivardhini, a 19-year-old polytechnic student, says that, “If you cast actors who have the cultural roots, the cultural background, I find that they can bring more to the character than just the casting direction, because it is part of their culture, and they would be able to bring the character to life, regardless of the medium, in a more nuanced way”. 

This is also the primary reason the casting of Nico Parker, a biracial actress, as Astrid in the HTTYD live-action adaptation, received so much initial backlash. Many elements of the movie, like their outfits, weapons, and the Island of Berk, are all heavily based on Scandinavian culture. The Islanders even call themselves Vikings, believed to be mostly fair-skinned people with blonde hair, which was what the original film stuck to, including Astrid.

Nico Parker who plays Astrid in the live-action adaptation, next to the original animated version, Ms Parker being distinctly different in their hair, and costume. Photo taken from Reddit

The Double-Edged Sword of Adaptation

According to Jedd Jong, a 32-year-old film critic, in the production of such adaptations, directors are often plagued with the same old problem, “(We) are trying to make something that is derivative or that is based on something that people already love,” he explained,  because you hope that their love for it will attract them to the new version, but their love for it might make them hate the new version.” 

In the attempt to create a successful live-action remake, some directors choose to stick closely to the source material, while others choose to deviate ever-so-slightly so that the film brings a sense of freshness while maintaining what fans loved about the original, both of which have its fair share of challenges. Deciding the film’s vision before going into casting is one of the most important things that makes or breaks a live-action adaptation.

The Vision Before the Cast

In the case of HTTYD, Director Dean DeBlois addressed the backlash by emphasising the importance of capturing the character’s essence over physical resemblance. He stated that the casting team auditioned many actors and chose Parker because she best embodied Astrid’s spirit and personality.

DeBlois also shared his vision for this adaptation. He states that the film “is a fantasy, not a historical recounting”. His vision for the Viking world in the movie is imagined as a diverse society influenced by various cultures encountered during Viking explorations, he says. “Vikings did travel far and wide. They were on the Silk Road. They’re in the Far East. They’re in North Africa. They interacted with all of these cultures and traded with all of these cultures.” Furthermore, “Dragons are a part of so many cultures that, in my mind, if they were a menace to all these cultures, that could be sort of the basis of them coming together to wipe the dragons out”.

Background Person of Colour viking characters in the HTTYD live-action, showing Deblois’s vision for a diverse viking world. Photos from @selinasjones on Instagram (far left), @iambrollyboy on TikTok and HTTYD fandom (far right), edited by Tristan Low

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The absence of a clear vision leads to what Mr Jong calls “hitting the marks”, a theatre term for mechanically following prescribed positions. “The movie feels like I have to match, I have to give the audience what is expected exactly. And sometimes you can see that, you can see the panic of the filmmaker trying to hit the mark.” An example he gives is the 2019 Lion King, which, to him, was a beat-for-beat copy of the original animated film with an extra 30-40 minutes tacked on.

The vision also extends to representation and cultural authenticity. Aladdin succeeded partly because the production team invested in understanding Middle Eastern culture, hiring consultants and creating authentic-feeling environments. 

Conversely, the 2020 Mulan demonstrated that a lack of cultural understanding can lead to failures in the film’s vision. Despite having Chinese actors, the film felt inauthentic to many Chinese viewers because the creative team lacked deep cultural understanding. “None of the writers are Chinese, none of them are Asian. The director is from New Zealand,” Mr Jong notes. “They were using the phoenix as in like the Western mythology of a phoenix rising from the ashes, which is not what the phoenix in Chinese mythology means.” This resulted in a film that looked diverse on the surface but felt hollow when examining the details.

It’s Impossible to Please Everyone

While there will always be biased critics, the numbers speak for themselves. With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 76%, the live-action adaptation of HTTYD has grossed around $560 million worldwide. This success can be attributed to the director sticking to his vision of creating a diverse world of Vikings, and explaining it as part of the adaptation’s worldbuilding, instead of forcing POC (Person of colour) actors into the movie.

HTTYD live-action’s box office forecast, compared to other live-action adaptations. Photo from X

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The adaptation also managed to further dive into relationships and interactions between characters in the story, making just enough changes so that the movie did not lose the feel of the original, while also not feeling like a 1-for-1 replica.

The director’s vision for this movie taps into the familiarity the audiences have with the original animated film, and in so doing also hopes that many moviegoers will disregard the fact that some characters look different. Mr Jong says, “I think that she did a great job in the movie, but I also feel like their direction was just to be as literal as you can, like literally as close to Astrid. So I think that gives the actors themselves a bit less room to interpret, but that seems to be what people want. Generally, people like the HTTYD adaptation.”

Nico Parker as Astrid in the movie. Photo from CBR 

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Give It a Shot, Form Your Own Opinions

Roping it back to the main question, a successful live-action adaptation is not about whether the directors can cast actors that look exactly like their original counterparts; it’s about maintaining the original essence of the movie, while adding depth and emotional resonance that connects with both longtime fans and new audiences alike. Then again, what decides a film’s success is the audience’s reception to it.

Judging a movie based completely on what others say about it, or on a character’s look, is quite restrictive and can distract one from appreciating the story, performances, and creative direction that give the adaptation its unique identity and emotional impact.

Mr Jong wisely states that “part of the tradition of telling stories throughout human history is that they change. So definitely, most people will be most attached to the version that they grew up with.”

Original animated Toothless and Hiccup compared to the live-action adaptation of Toothless and Hiccup. Photo from Buzzfeed.

“But the version that they grew up with may not then be the original. And I think that this is something where you see all stories are derivative of earlier stories. And that doesn’t mean that it’s bad.”

As the name suggests, Live-action adaptations aren’t meant to be carbon copies, but fresh takes that breathe new life into familiar stories. By giving these films a fair shot and watching them with an open mind, we might find new meaning in old tales, proving that the heart of storytelling lies in its ability to evolve and resonate across generations.