How to Train Your Dragon Star’s Secret Struggle: The Left-Handed Challenge Nobody Noticed

How to Train Your Dragon Star Reveals His Toughest Challenge on Set

Playing a character in a big-budget, effects-heavy movie like the upcoming live-action How to Train Your Dragon remake might seem all about mastering stunts or acting alongside CGI dragons. But Mason Thames, who stars as the young Viking Hiccup, shared with Polygon that his biggest challenge was something quite unexpected: pretending to be left-handed throughout the entire film.

Mason Thames had to act left-handed, unlike his natural right-handedness.
Director Dean DeBlois insisted on preserving this detail from the original animated movie.
Co-star Nico Parker found her own stunt challenges, especially jumping across slippery rocks.
The live-action film is now available for digital purchase and will hit physical media soon.

The Left-Handed Hiccup Challenge

Most viewers probably didn’t even notice that Hiccup is left-handed in the original 2010 animated movie. However, it’s a subtle but important character trait that influences how he handles weapons and tools—a big deal for a Viking teenager trying to fit in with his warrior community.

“It was very difficult!” Thames admitted. “I’m actually right-handed, but Hiccup in the original movie is left-handed. So me and director Dean DeBlois wanted to keep it the same, [along with] a lot of little things from the 2010 animated movie, to make an audience feel comfortable.”

Even co-star Nico Parker was surprised. “Wait, you did? I didn’t even notice,” she said, showing just how subtle the detail is on screen.

Stunts, Wires, and Slippery Rocks

While Thames focused on perfecting his left-handed portrayal (which involved a lot of falling), Parker had her own stunt struggles. She shared that the boots she wore, modeled after the animated Astrid’s look, were “fiery and heavy,” making stunt work more challenging.

But the toughest stunt for Parker was a brief moment jumping across rocks in a stream. “Two-second moment in the film, but there is one bit where Astrid’s following Hiccup through the woods, and I’m jumping over rocks,” she explained. “But honestly, the rocks were so slippery. I was attached to a wire so I wouldn’t fall into the water. And it looks so short, but actually doing it […] Even my stunt double was finding it difficult. So actually watching that, for me, is a tiny moment that I’m very proud of.”

Fun on Set Despite the Challenges

Thames described his time on set as mostly fun, even if it meant falling repeatedly. “I had a month of practice. Everybody else was learning how to flip swords and stuff, and I’m just, ‘All right, Mason, fall again.’ It was just a lot of falling. Nothing was too difficult — it was more fun. Just the dropping. There’s me on wires and then [DeBlois] would drop me and I’d just spin, for whatever test drive was about to go down.”