As Hiccup, the 17-year-old actor is shouldering the weight of Universal’s new live-action franchise — and living out his childhood fantasy.

On the set of the live-action movie, Toothless and the other dragons existed as large puppets with simple functions, operated by a team of master puppeteers led by Tom Wilton, a performer who had worked on the “War Horse” stage play.

Universal's 'How to Train Your Dragon' is opening to $82.5M, the best in the franchise, while A24's 'Materialists' is looking at $11M+.

Going into my screening of the new live-action feature, I made a specific point of not revisiting the 2010 movie – which I probably last watched around the time that How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World was released.