Dreamworks has released the first picture of Cate Blanchett’s character from the upcoming feature, How to Train Your Dragon 2. Find out what she’s all about, plus how her favorite dragon relates to Star Wars, after the jump!
We were excited to hear of Blanchett’s casting this past summer so we’re glad USA Today previewed the image as well as giving us a few more details about her. Blanchett voices Valka in the sequel, a loner who prefers the company of dragons to humans. I don’t blame her:
An outsider who’s now the village hero, Hiccup is on the verge of adulthood, with his chieftain father, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler), grooming him for responsibility. But he’d rather embrace what’s left of his carefree childhood.
Hiccup’s sense of adventure drives him to explore the world past Berk, and he and Toothless travel to the Arctic and stumble upon Valka, a vigilante who is springing dragons from traps and hiding them in a refuge away from the villainous dragon hunter Drago Bludvist (Djimon Hounsou) and his No. 2, Eret (Kit Harington).
Director Dean DeBlois says Blanchett’s character was designed to be for dragons what Dian Fossey was for apes. She lives with them, develops non-verbal communication, and even starts acting a bit like a dragon herself. “Valka’s life is not only learning about all (the dragons’) secrets and ways and living among them, but also playing among them,” DeBlois told USA Today. “That’s part of what she can show Hiccup, things he’s never known about dragon behavior.”
And as for Valka’s main dragon, his name is Cloudjumper. USA Today writes, “While Toothless was created to look like a black panther, Cloudjumper has owl mannerisms and a second set of wings under his main ones that ‘can actually splay and become an X-wing,’ DeBlois says.”
How to Train Your Dragon 2 hits theaters June 13.
(via Collider)
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