How to Train Your Dragon Characters

The main characters are Hiccup, Toothless, Astrid, Stoick and Gobber, joined by a wider ensemble of young riders, dragons and villains. How to Train Your Dragon (2010), directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, introduces most of them on the Viking island of Berk, where villagers are constantly attacked by dragons that steal their livestock. Two animated sequels followed, How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019), both directed by Dean DeBlois, and then the live action remake How to Train Your Dragon (2025). John Powell composed the score for all four films, which gives the characters a shared musical thread even as the actors change.

Hiccup is the protagonist of the series, the small, awkward teenage son of Stoick, chief of Berk. He works for the blacksmith Gobber and longs to fight dragons like everyone else, until he shoots down a rare Night Fury with a homemade launcher and cannot bring himself to finish the job. Jay Baruchel voices him in How to Train Your Dragon (2010), How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019), and Mason Thames plays him in How to Train Your Dragon (2025).

His arc is the spine of the saga, and each film moves him one step along it. In 2010 he wins his place through kindness instead of force, then pays for the victory over the Red Death with part of his left leg, waking to find that Gobber has built him a prosthetic foot. In the 2014 film he spends his days charting unexplored lands with Toothless while his father presses him to prepare to become chief, and he is named chief only after Stoick dies shielding him. By the 2019 film he has held the job for a year and keeps rescuing captured dragons, and the story ends with him choosing to release the dragons of Berk. In my opinion, the 2010 injury matters more than it first looks: it makes the hero and his dragon physically matched, a point the 2025 remake underlines when Toothless gets a matching prosthetic fin. For the full profile, see Hiccup's character page.

Toothless is the Night Fury that Hiccup spares and names, and the bond between the two is the emotional core of the whole saga. Toothless cannot fly alone at first, so Hiccup builds him a replacement tail fin and rides in a harness. In How to Train Your Dragon (2010), Randy Thom is listed as the voice of Toothless, uncredited on screen, which fits a character who never speaks in words. The short Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury returns to the same problem: Hiccup builds Toothless an automatic tailfin so he can fly on his own, and Toothless takes off.

The Light Fury is the female dragon Toothless meets in How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019). The hunter Grimmel is given her as bait to lure Toothless, but the two dragons are clearly drawn to each other, and she runs when she senses the humans. SYFY Wire reported that Roger Deakins worked as a visual consultant on the series, with the courtship scene and the design of the undersea world among the material it discussed. That scene is worth comparing with the 2010 film, where Toothless learns to trust a human: here the trust runs between two dragons, and Hiccup is the one left outside it. In the Hidden World, Toothless is the alpha and the Light Fury is his mate, and ten years later the pair have three young hybrid dragons. Read more on Toothless's character page and the Light Fury.

Astrid is a teenage Viking and one of the students in the village dragon fighting class on Berk, and she grows suspicious when Hiccup suddenly starts to shine there. Toothless shows her and Hiccup the hidden nest where the dragons live, and she is among the friends who ride the training dragons into the final battle. America Ferrera voices her in the animated films, and Nico Parker plays her in How to Train Your Dragon (2025), where Astrid follows Hiccup, discovers his secret and is won over after a flight with Toothless. In How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) she travels with Hiccup and is captured by trappers who work for the warlord Drago. In the 2019 film she goes with Hiccup to find the Hidden World, and afterward she and Hiccup marry and become chieftains of New Berk. In my opinion she works as the audience's skeptic: her suspicion in 2010 is the test Hiccup's secret has to survive. Her full profile sits on Astrid's character page.

Stoick is the chief of Berk and Hiccup's father, and Gerard Butler gives him a booming voice in the animated films before playing him in live action in How to Train Your Dragon (2025). In 2010 Stoick, believing his son has betrayed the village, disowns him and sails with the fleet to find the nest, then sees that Hiccup was right all along. In the 2014 film he finds his long-lost wife Valka and is killed shielding Hiccup when Toothless, under Drago's control, fires at his son; Berk mourns him with a Viking funeral. In the 2019 film the Hidden World is a place Hiccup's late father once described, so his influence outlasts him.

Gobber is the blacksmith Hiccup works for, voiced by Craig Ferguson in the animated films and played by Nick Frost in How to Train Your Dragon (2025). He is the character who turns Hiccup's injury into a fix, building the prosthetic foot. See the pages for Stoick and Gobber.

The young riders are Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, who train alongside Hiccup and Astrid. When Hiccup frees Toothless at the end of the 2010 film, he rallies these friends to ride the training dragons into the battle, and in the 2019 film the riders use wingsuits to strike back at Grimmel. Snotlout is voiced by Jonah Hill and played by Gabriel Howell in How to Train Your Dragon (2025). Fishlegs is voiced by Christopher Mintz-Plasse and played by Julian Dennison. The twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut are voiced by Kristen Wiig and T.J. Miller, with Bronwyn James and Harry Trevaldwyn in the remake (Justin Rupple voices Tuffnut in How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)). Eret, voiced by Kit Harington, joins the cast in How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) and returns in the 2019 film. More detail is on Fishlegs, Snotlout and Ruffnut and Tuffnut.

Valka is Hiccup's mother, long thought dead, and the main villains are Drago Bludvist in How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) and Grimmel in How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019). Cate Blanchett voices Valka in the 2014 film and returns for the 2019 film. Valka has spent years saving dragons and sheltering them in a hidden ice sanctuary ruled by a giant alpha called the Bewilderbeast. Djimon Hounsou voices Drago in the 2014 film, and Drago is a warlord who wants to build an army of enslaved dragons; he attacks the sanctuary with a Bewilderbeast of his own, kills the old alpha and takes control of every dragon in sight. F. Murray Abraham voices Grimmel in the 2019 film, where he is a ruthless hunter who targets Toothless and whose Deathgrippers wreck much of Berk. In my opinion the two villains threaten the heroes in different ways: Drago is a conqueror who wants to control dragons by force, while Grimmel exploits the bond between Hiccup and Toothless. Screen Daily's interview with Dean DeBlois covers the trilogy plan and the Blanchett and Hounsou casting. Dedicated pages cover Valka, Drago Bludvist and Grimmel. For the creatures themselves, the dragons guide goes species by species.

The female characters include Astrid, Ruffnut, Valka and the Light Fury, along with the villagers Phlegma the Fierce (voiced by Ashley Jensen in How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and played by Ruth Codd in How to Train Your Dragon (2025)) and Gothi, played by Naomi Wirthner in the remake. Astrid and Valka carry the most story weight, while Ruffnut supplies much of the humor with her brother.

Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Gerard Butler and Craig Ferguson voice the main humans in the animated films, while Mason Thames, Nico Parker, Gerard Butler and Nick Frost play them in How to Train Your Dragon (2025). Gerard Butler is the one actor who appears in both versions of Stoick, which gives the remake a direct link to the voice audiences first heard in 2010. For a closer comparison, see this live action vs animated comparison and the full cast and crew.

No cast for the live action How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2027) has been confirmed beyond Cate Blanchett as Valka, so which characters from the 2025 film return is still open. Universal has dated it for June 11, 2027 in the US, with Dean DeBlois writing and directing, and filming began in late January 2026 at Sky Studios Elstree. Details sit on the live action sequel page.