How to Train Your Dragon director explains why Astrid is not white in live-action remake

24 June 2025, 16:06 | Updated: 24 June 2025, 16:32

By Sam Prance

Dean DeBlois has shut down the racist backlash surrounding Nico Parker's casting in the live-action movie.

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How to Train Your Dragon director Dean DeBlois has defended casting Nico Parker as Astrid following racist backlash.

If you've seen the live-action How to Train Your Dragon, it's impossible to imagine any actress other than Nico Parker playing the role of Astrid. Not only does she capture the beloved cartoon character's personality perfectly, but she also adds new dimensionality to the role and has incredible chemistry with Mason Thames as Hiccup.

Nevertheless, some people complained about Nico being cast as Astrid because Astrid is white with blonde hair and blue eyes in the original animated film. People even argued that it was historically inaccurate to cast a mixed-race actress in the role despite the fact that How to Train Your Dragon is fiction set on a fictional island.

Now, Dean DeBlois has explained why Astrid is not white in the live-action film and shut down any criticism of Nico.

Read more: How to Train Your Dragon's Nico Parker responds to racist backlash to her Astrid casting
Read more: How To Train Your Dragon director explains why they removed key Toothless scene

Watch the How to Train Your Dragon trailer

Speaking to Variety, Dean explained that he was upset to see Nico get backlash over her casting as Astrid. He stated: "It bothered me in the beginning and now I think that’s fading away, as I expected it would. Once people start seeing Nico Parker in the role, it just becomes obvious she is excellent as Astrid."

Dean then added: "[Nico] was cast because she was the best that came in, and within the context of this movie, and sort of the expanded mythology of the tribe, the whole idea that Astrid has to be white and blue-eyed and blonde goes away. It’s unfortunate that she had to hear any of that."

Mason Thames as Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III Nico Parker as Astrid Hofferson in How to Train Your Dragon. Picture: Alamy

For context, Astrid isn't the only Viking who isn't white in the live-action How to Train Your Dragon movie. Pretty early on, it's revealed that Stoick and his clan travelled across the world expanding their community. As a result, there are Asian and Black Vikings in the film and there's historical evidence to suggest that real Vikings were diverse too.

Talking to ScreenRant, Dean said: "They are a gathering of warriors from all of these different places, under the same Viking banner. The truth is, the Vikings did travel far and wide. They were on the Silk Road. They're in the Far East. They're in North Africa. They even had a name for North Africa, which is called Bláland."

He ended by saying: "They interacted with all of these cultures and traded with all of these cultures. So it makes sense."