Nick Frost has plenty of beloved characters to his name, and he’s now adding another to his filmography with How to Train Your Dragon‘s Gobber, with just a little more depth this time around. The 2025 movie serves as a live-action adaptation both of the 2010 animated film of the same name and its source material, Cressida Cowell’s children’s book series. The story centers on a young Viking who, after befriending a dragon he names Toothless and learns more about the species, works to adjust his village’s perception of dragons.
Frost, best known for his frequent collaborations with long-time friend Simon Pegg on the Cornetto trilogy and Spaced, among others, is taking over the role of Gobber from Craig Ferguson for the How to Train Your Dragon remake’s cast. Also known as Gobber the Belch, the character serves as the blacksmith for the village of Berk, as well as teaching the younger generations the tribe’s methods of fighting dragons. Gobber is also a long-time friend of Gerard Butler’s Stoick, the village chieftain, to whom he often provides emotional support in raising Mason Thames’ Hiccup.
In honor of the movie’s release, ScreenRant interviewed Nick Frost to discuss How to Train Your Dragon. The star opened up about how he worked with writer/director Dean DeBlois to deepen Gobber for the screen in comparison to his animated counterpart, as well as how blown away he was by the practical approach to the movie’s production, what he’s excited to explore with the character in the already-confirmed sequel, and a preview of his transformation into Hagrid for HBO’s Harry Potter reboot.
Frost Sees Gobber As Being More Than Just A Comedic Character
The Largely Practical Set Was Also A Big Tool For Immersing Himself In The World
Since the movie was first announced to be in the works, one of writer/director Dean DeBlois’ biggest objectives for the How to Train Your Dragon remake was to offer a deeper exploration of its material, particularly characters who may have “felt underserved” in the original trilogy. In looking at his approach to playing Gobber, Frost noted he had a very similar objective in his mind, recognizing that playing him in live-action “gives me a chance to flesh him out as a human” compared to the prior films.
“No one’s ever just angry or fun,” Frost explained. “I want Gobber to have a whole range of human emotions. I want people to see that he’s a dad to Mason, he’s a good friend to Stoick, but he’s also angry. I think people were always warm to him as a character more if they can see in him every part of humanity. And he’s funny. He’s charming, he’s an idiot. He’s angry. It is great to play.“
Beyond working with DeBlois, who also wrote and directed the original trilogy, one of the most helpful elements Frost found in getting into Gobber’s mindset was the very practical approach to its production, recalling how “when you get on set, it’s Berk, it’s the training arena, it’s full of hundreds of Vikings“. He also recalls his collaboration with the costume and hair departments to bring Gobber’s iconic design into live-action, particularly the “mᴀssive mustache” and the peg meant to replace his missing leg.
It is not as simple as this, but essentially, if they dressed a chimpanzee in Gobber’s costume, and then he just got to do the lines in that setting, it would still kind of look pretty good.
Despite the self-deprecating joke, Frost went on to say he was “trying to big up the art department, and the costume department, and the wig man“, all of whose work he was in awe of throughout the movie’s production. “It is so nice because you get to just see the creative genius on a set of everyone,” Frost beamed. “It’s not just people in front of the camera and Dean and the writers. It’s like, ‘Wow, that’s a little bit of stuff on my costume that no one’s ever going to see, but someone spent two weeks donning leather onto a loop. Wow, that’s amazing.’“
Frost Recognizes The Role Of Hagrid Comes With Multiple Jobs For Him
“…That’s The Reason I Wanted To Do It In The First Place.”
Looking beyond How to Train Your Dragon, Frost is quickly following the live-action remake up with HBO’s upcoming TV reboot of the Harry Potter franchise, in which he’s starring as another fan-favorite character, Hagrid. Remarking it to be “absolutely amazing” he’s getting a chance to “retell and to be Hagrid“, the star explained that one of the biggest objectives he has going into the show’s production is “to be very protective of the children“, not only as it’s “one of the baselines of [Hagrid’s] relationship with those children“, but also because he himself is a father.
With production currently set to kick off sometime this summer, Frost reveals he’s already had “the opportunity to go and see some sets” for the Harry Potter TV show, including having seen “The Sorting Hat“, “some wands” and that the team are “growing a Hagrid beard” for him. The star also praised showrunner Francesca Gardiner’s scripts for the series, as well as early collaborative conversations with director and executive producer Mark Mylod, which he cites as being “the reason I wanted to do it in the first place“.
Stay tuned for and check out our other How to Train Your Dragon interviews with:
- Dean DeBlois (Pre-Release)
- Mason Thames & Nico Parker
- Gerard Butler
- Dean DeBlois (Opening Release)
- Julian Dennison, Gabriel Howell, Bronwyn James & Harry Trevaldwyn
How to Train Your Dragon soars into theaters on Friday!
Source: ScreenRant Plus
