Grimmel How to Train Your Dragon: Who He Is and Who Voices Him

Grimmel is the human antagonist of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019), directed by Dean DeBlois, and the film credits him simply as Grimmel (voice). Fans also know him as Grimmel the Grisly, though the film credits him simply as Grimmel (voice). F. Murray Abraham performs the role and is billed third, behind Jay Baruchel as Hiccup and America Ferrera as Astrid.

In the setup of the film, Grimmel is a ruthless hunter. Warlords give him a female Light Fury to use as bait for Toothless, because they want the Night Fury as an alpha. That single assignment sets the whole plot in motion, since it brings a hunter with a plan to a village that is already crowded with rescued dragons and tired of raids.

He belongs to the third story only. Grimmel does not appear in How to Train Your Dragon (2010), How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) or How to Train Your Dragon (2025), so How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019) is his first and only appearance in the films. The earlier sequel had its own villain in Drago Bludvist, voiced by Djimon Hounsou, and the two are often compared for that reason.

Grimmel's story is a single escalating hunt: the warlords give him a captive Light Fury, and he spends the rest of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019) closing in on Toothless. His timing is sharp, because he arrives a year after Hiccup became chief, when Berk is already overfull of rescued dragons and worn down by hunters.

The bait does its work in the woods, where Toothless and the Light Fury are plainly drawn to each other, even though she bolts when she senses humans. Grimmel then comes face to face with Hiccup and demands Toothless outright. When Hiccup refuses to hand him over, the Deathgrippers tear through much of Berk. That damage is what sends Hiccup out to sea with the villagers and their dragons, and they settle on an island they call New Berk.

The hunter does not let go. Toothless slips away to join the Light Fury, and Grimmel sets a trap for the group left behind, though most of them get clear of it. When Hiccup and Astrid reach the Hidden World, they find Toothless as the alpha and the Light Fury as his mate. Grimmel trails them in, captures both dragons and turns Toothless into the tool for commanding the dragons of Berk. Hiccup and the riders take to the air in wingsuits and free Toothless, but Grimmel drugs the Light Fury and flies off with her, which opens the final chase.

Grimmel clashes most with Toothless and Hiccup, and he answers only to the warlords who supplied the Light Fury in How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019). Toothless is the reason Grimmel is in the story at all, because the hunter treats the Night Fury as a prize to be taken rather than a creature to be understood. The film presents Grimmel as a hired specialist rather than a leader of an army.

With Hiccup, the relationship is a straight clash of methods. Hiccup has spent three films freeing and sheltering dragons, and Grimmel demands that Hiccup hand Toothless over. Astrid stands beside Hiccup throughout, and she is with him when they find the Hidden World that Grimmel then follows them into.

The Deathgrippers are the nearest thing Grimmel has to allies, and they do much of his damage to Berk. The Light Fury is both his captive and the dragon who rescues Toothless. Comparisons with Drago Bludvist come naturally, since Drago also wanted to bend dragons to his will in How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014), but Grimmel works as a lone hunter with a trap rather than as a warlord with a fleet.

Grimmel dies by falling at the climax of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019), moments after the Light Fury saves Toothless. The last stretch begins when he drugs the Light Fury and flies away with her. Hiccup and Toothless give chase and defeat the Deathgrippers, but a tranquilizer hits Toothless and he plummets. The Light Fury catches him, and Grimmel is the one who falls.

With the hunter gone, the threat to Berk is over, yet the lesson Hiccup takes from the ordeal stays with him. He and Toothless accept that dragons will only be safe away from humans, so Hiccup says goodbye and the Berkians let their dragons go to the Hidden World. Ten years later, Hiccup and Astrid, married and with children, visit Toothless and the Light Fury, who now have three young hybrid dragons.

Grimmel has no part in that closing scene. His death is permanent, and the epilogue a decade on belongs entirely to the heroes and the dragons they let go.

In How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019), Grimmel's best moments are his demand for Toothless on Berk and his control of Berk's dragons through Toothless, and he is a credible but thinly drawn villain. In my opinion, the confrontation on Berk works because the demand is so plain, and because the Deathgrippers that follow it make the threat feel physical rather than theoretical.

I would also point to the moment he takes control of Berk's dragons through Toothless. It could be argued that this echoes Drago Bludvist, who used a giant dragon of his own to control every dragon in sight in How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014), yet here the control runs through the dragon Hiccup loves most. That makes the scene more personal, and more uncomfortable for a younger viewer.

He is Hiccup's opposite in one respect: Hiccup rides a Night Fury as a friend, and Grimmel hunts it as a trophy. That being said, the film gives him less backstory than Hiccup receives, which is the main reason some fans rank him below the best villains of the series.

For a parent choosing tonight's film, it carries an official PG rating in the US, UK and Australia, and Grimmel is the scariest presence in it. If your child enjoyed the menace of Drago Bludvist, Grimmel will be a comfortable step, and the ending gives plenty of warmth to settle the evening.