How To Train Your Dragon 2: What The Cast Looks Like Today & What They Are Up To
Released in 2010, the Dreamworks original animated film "How to Train Your Dragon" became an immediate critical and commercial success ... which, of course, means a sequel followed just a few years later. The story of young Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), who wants to become a formidable Viking dragon slayer and ends up teaming up with a dragon he's meant to kill, ended up getting a second outing in 2014 titled (predictably) "How to Train Your Dragon 2," which sees Hiccup reunite with his long-lost mother and fight against a dragon hunter to save the world at large. Like the first movie, critics and audiences alike were fans of this second outing, and the franchise continued its winning streak.
A ton of talented actors have lent their voices to the "How to Train Your Dragon" franchise alongside Baruchel and even though they're not seen on-screen, these stars of the sequel are some of Hollywood's biggest names. From Academy Award nominees to "Game of Thrones" veterans, here's what the cast of "How to Train Your Dragon 2" looks like today and what they've been doing since they appeared in the 2014 movie.
Jay Baruchel has appeared in both comedies and dramas
After playing Hiccup for a second time in "How to Train Your Dragon 2," Jay Baruchel returned in 2019 for "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World," the third movie in the franchise, but he also popped up in comedies and dramas aside from this series. One year after "How to Train Your Dragon 2," Baruchel led the innovative comedy series "Man Seeking Woman," which placed his character Jay into a surreal, bizarre world as he tried to find true love. The show lasted for three seasons on FXX and wrapped up in 2017. On the small screen, Baruchel also showed up in projects like "Letterkenny," lent his voice to "The Magic Schoolbus Rides Again," and appeared alongside the Kids in the Hall for their self-titled return to television in 2022. Since early 2023, Baruchel has starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Netflix original series "FUBAR" in a leading role as Carter Perlmutter.
Baruchel has also shown up in a handful of non-"How to Train Your Dragon" movies since 2014; he appeared in the 2014 remake of "Robocop" alongside Joel Kinnaman, worked with Zoe Kazan and Andrea Riseborough on "The Kindness of Strangers" in 2019, and wrote, directed, and starred in "Random Acts of Violence" that same year. In 2023, he played a main role in the dark comedy "Blackberry."
Cate Blanchett keeps racking up Oscar nods
Cate Blanchett has, to put it lightly, been incredibly busy since voicing Valka, Hiccup's estranged mother, in "How to Train Your Dragon 2." She appeared in the film fresh off her 2013 Oscar win for "Blue Jasmine" — her second win overall — and a year after playing Valka, she scored yet another Oscar nomination for her leading role in "Carol." She also played a major supporting role in 2015 as the evil stepmother, Lady Tremaine, in Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of "Cinderella," and in 2017, she officially joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a charmingly devious turn as the antagonist Hela in "Thor: Ragnarok."
Blanchett also came back for "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World" in 2019, starring in "Where'd You Go, Bernadette?" that year as well, before joining the star-studded cast of Adam McKay's 2021 satire "Don't Look Up." Aside from a supporting turn in 2021'a "Nightmare Alley" and a voice performance in Guillermo del Toro's 2022 stop-motion "Pinocchio" and Blanchett received her eighth Academy Award nomination to date in 2022 for her starring role as a disgraced yet celebrated conductor in "Tár."
Blanchett has also appeared on a handful of television shows — most notably, she starred as the anti-feminist crusader Phyllis Schlafly in the 2020 miniseries "Mrs. America," and she briefly appeared in the sixth season of "Black Mirror" in its premiere "Joan is Awful."
America Ferrera starred in one of the biggest movies of 2023
After playing Hiccup's love interest Astrid in "How to Train Your Dragon," America Ferrera returned for both sequels; in "How to Train Your Dragon 2," Astrid is now Hiccup's fiancée. (The two are married in "Hidden World.") Aside from that, Ferrera occupied herself with a leading role on the subversive workplace sitcom "Superstore," where she plays Amy Sosa, who rises through the ranks to become a part of the Cloud 9 corporation, which owns the stores at the center of the series. Ferrera technically left the show at the beginning of Season 6, but when that turned out to be the final season, she returned for the last three episodes.
Ferrera's biggest role lately, though, has unquestionably been in the "Barbie" movie. The 2023 hit, directed and written by Greta Gerwig (alongside her partner Noah Baumbach), casts Ferrera as Gloria, an everyday woman who happens to work at Mattel at the very moment that Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) escape into the real world. Gloria is, honestly, the heart of the movie, delivering its now-iconic monologue about the contradictions of femininity, and Ferrera's performance helped make the movie into the enormous success it became with both critics and at the box office.
Gerard Butler is still a major action star
Stoick the Vast, the leader of the movie's main Viking tribe Berk and Hiccup's father, is voiced throughout the franchise by Gerard Butler — and if you know one thing about Butler, it's that he's a beloved action hero. No, seriously; basically every movie Butler has done since 2014 has been a huge action movie, whether it's the "Has Fallen" series (2013's "Olympus Has Fallen," 2016's "London Has Fallen," and 2019's "Angel Has Fallen"), the "300" sequel "Rise of an Empire" in 2014, or the historic action flick "Gods of Egypt."
Aside from that, Butler starred in "A Family Man" in 2016, "Geostorm" in 2017, "Den of Thieves" in 2018, and a handful of other thrillers — but he hit success once again in 2023 with "Plane," where he plays a pilot who has to fight to protect his passengers after a crash leaves them stranded in highly dangerous territory. Importantly, though, Butler produces pretty much every movie he appears in, proving he's just as formidable behind the camera as he is in front of it.
Djimon Hounsou has a handful of superhero movies under his belt
An Academy Award nominee for dramas like "In America" and "Blood Diamond," Djimon Hounsou voices the primary antagonist of "How to Train Your Dragon 2," known as Drago Bludvist. The head of a dangerous group of dragon trappers, Drago wants to take control of all the creatures and turn them into his slaves, presenting an obvious problem for Hiccup and Toothless.
As for Hounsou, after starting his career with prestige content, he pivoted to massive superhero and blockbuster movies; also in 2014, he showed up as a minor villain in the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" film (a role he reprised in 2019 in "Captain Marvel"), and he followed that with a role as the main antagonist in 2015's "Furious 7." Hounsou also appears in the "Aquaman" franchise as King Ricou of the Fisherman and, more significantly, he's played the ancient Wizard in the DCEU, appearing in "Shazam!" in 2016, "Black Adam" in 2022, and "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" in 2023. Other projects for Hounsou include "A Quiet Place Part II" and "The King's Man," both in 2021.
Kit Harington might be working on another Game of Thrones project
Kit Harington, who voices Eret — a dragon trapper working for Drago Bludvist — is most recognizable for his role on "Game of Thrones" as Jon Snow, the tortured presumed bastard of Ned Stark (Sean Bean). Throughout the series, Jon assumes the role of the hero, whether he's rallying his men of the Night's Watch at the Wall or facing the White Walkers himself in the show's final season. Most notably, a major fan theory concerning Jon that originated in George R.R. Martin's original series, "A Song of Ice and Fire," ended up confirmed on the show. At the end of Season 6, it was confirmed that Jon was actually a secret member of the royal Targaryen family and not a bastard at all... and had a valid claim to the Iron Throne all along.
That never came to fruition, but Harington's career continued after "Game of Thrones" came to a close in the spring of 2019. That year, Harington, along with everyone else mentioned, returned for "Hidden World," and he also sporadically did short movies and miniseries during his time as Jon Snow. (A standout is, certainly, the HBO sports mockumentary "Seven Days in Hell," where Harington plays the most dimwitted man in the history of tennis.) Since then, Harington joined the MCU in 2021's "Eternals," worked on the original miniseries "Gunpowder," appeared in an episode of the "Modern Love" anthology series, and showed up in four episodes of a different anthology, "Extrapolations." Now, it's rumored he may star in an eventual Jon Snow spin-off.