Gerard Butler’s Most Beloved Movie Is On Netflix Right Now
Gerard Butler starred in How to Train Your Dragon, currently streaming on Netflix.
Gerard Butler starred in some of his great films in the 2000s, but his best film came in 2010 with the Dreamworks film How To Train Your Dragon. Rotten Tomatoes critics and audiences agree that it’s his best film, giving it a 99 percent and a 91 percent aggregate score. If you want to check out Butler in this timeless animated classic, you can stream it now on Netflix.
How to Train Your Dragon is the first film in the trilogy adapted from the Cressida Cowell book of the same name. The film follows a Viking teen who wants to be a dragon slayer but ends up befriending a legendary Night Fury dragon instead. Along with Gerard Butler, the film stars Jay Baruchel, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller, and Kristen Wiig.
Gerard Butler plays the gruff Viking chief of the village and would play the role again in the sequels How to Play Your Dragon 2 and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. It’s not surprising that the film received sequels, considering it was a critical and commercial success. In fact, it’s often considered amongst the best Dreamworks IPs alongside the Shrek and Kung Fu Panda franchises.
The film impressed at the box office, bringing in a respectable $494.9 million globally. This would make How to Train Your Dragon Dreamworks’ highest-grossing animated film outside of the Shrek franchise. Along with being Gerard Butler’s most critically-acclaimed film, the film also nabbed Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score nominations at the Academy Awards.
In fact, the How to Train Your Dragon franchise is so popular that Universal has greenlit a live-action remake which is set to be released on March 14, 2025. The casting process is underway, so it remains to be seen if Gerard Butler will be involved in any capacity. Since everyone who voiced the teenage characters are adults, it seems pretty unlikely that they’ll bring any of those actors back to their original roles.
Of course, Gerard Butler played an older character in the film, so it is possible they could have him reprise his same role. Whether Butler is involved or not, they are bringing back Dean DeBlois to write, direct, and produce. DeBlois served as writer and director roles in all of the previous films in the franchise, so it seems like it will be in good hands.
If successful, the live-action remakes are planned to adapt the entire trilogy. Live-action remakes of animated films have been a big trend for Disney, which has led to commercial success but not a lot of critical success. It remains to be seen if Dreamworks can find success in the live-action animation realm, but bringing back actors like Gerard Butler to play their original roles might be a step in the right direction.
While we wait for the live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon to come out, you can check out the animated original on Netflix now. Gerard Butler also has several other new projects including the action thriller Kandahar and the animated ARK: The Animated Series. Stay tuned for more news on his upcoming work.
