The evolution of Hiccup, who was originally going to be even younger.
How to Train Your Dragon
What Could Have Been in this series.How To Train Your Dragon
- Crossing over with Executive Meddling, the film was originally going to be very close to the book, considerably Lighter and Softer than the end result; concept art shows a much younger Hiccup, Snotlout as a girl, a much smaller Toothless, Astrid with huge braids giving her a Helga look, and a lot more gags. Hiccup's mom was going to be in the film and act as a voice of reason, but the directors thought she took away from Hiccup and Stoick's relationship so they made her a Missing Mom instead. She appears in the sequel as a dragon tamer in her own right. In line with this, they were going to adapt book one, albeit with Hiccup, Snotlout and the other boys in training vanished.
However, Snotlout is male in the original books, meaning that in that case they averted using Gender Flip — most likely when they decided to create Ruffnut, thus giving the group more gender balance without making Snotlout a girl. - Toothless' design was originally meant to be more canine-based, but it was changed to be feline-based instead after one of the directors saw a screensaver of a black panther.
- Originally, Hiccup would emerge from the battle with the Red Death completely unscathed. The directors changed their minds because they felt that the Red Death was too great and powerful a threat to defeat without some kind of sacrifice being made, and that Hiccup losing his left foot drew an interesting parallel to Toothless.
- According to the DVD commentary, the Village Elder had a larger role and doubled as the village's mystic in an early version of the film that contained more prophesies and magic.
How to Train Your Dragon 2
- From what can be gleaned from this
interview, DeBlois had planned on giving the film two antagonists, likely as two balanced forces that would challenge Hiccup along the way. Drago would be as he appeared in the film: a great force that is a clear threat, and Valka as a more sympathetic villain whom Hiccup would, possibly, persuade to see his way of things. - Drago was originally conceived as a Greater-Scope Villain who would be introduced in the second film and serve as the Big Bad for the third and final installment, but was moved up to the second after Valka's character was rewritten.
- DeBlois had originally wanted Gobber to be killed by the mind-controlled Toothless, but Guillermo del Toro suggested that Stoick be killed instead as it would service Hiccup's arc and have a stronger emotional impact.
- Fully animated scenes of Hiccup spending a longer time trying to wake Toothless up from the mind control were made, where he gets even closer and leans against Toothless' head while saying "I won't leave. I won't let you go." The creators might have thought that having Hiccup simply touch his head would be a more meaningful nod to how they first bonded, being the defining factor waking him up. That, and Drago allowing him that close without doing anything would be too unrealistic.
- Robert Pattinson was considered for a role in the film at one point, most likely Eret.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
- When the film was first in production, Word of God revealed that Drago Bludvist would return from the second film and become a more developed character, possibly even performing a Heel–Face Turn. However, DeBlois later revealed after the release of the first trailer that Drago's intended role was removed in the script's rewrites.
- In the original draft, there was no Light Fury, and the hostage used to manipulate Toothless was Hiccup. Rather than order the dragons to submit, Toothless would take the opportunity to spring a trap-within-a-trap against Drago. This draft also contained a flock of other Night Furies.
- One of the storyboards drafted after the introduction of the Light Fury, but before the final cut, would have featured her being found in a cage aboard the trappers' ship and released straight off. In this scene, Toothless gently burns the harness muzzling her, and as his breath causes her scales to heat up, he literally sees himself in her.
- Head of character animations Simon Otto mentioned some concepts and ideas for Grimmel the Grisly that weren't used or scrapped altogether. One of these concepts being that Grimmel's leather clothing is actually made of Night Fury skin (which was most likely kept into the final film as Grimmel was able to touch Hiccup’s fire sword without being hurt but never mentioned). Concept art of Grimmel also depicted him using a net, whip-like grappling hook, and spear/harpoon (the hook is still visible on Grimmel and harpoons/spears are also still visible on his airship in the film but Grimmel never uses these in combat).
