Somewhere in the world, a young child is spotting Nico Parker on the street and excitedly calling her Astrid. Seeing not the twenty-one-year-old English actress, but the warrior Astrid Hofferson: the fierce, headstrong, and skilled Viking she plays in the 2025 live-action reimagining of How To Train Your Dragon. Parker, the daughter of actress Thandiwe Newton and filmmaker Ol Parker, finds this particular detail of her new life genuinely hard to process, something she admits hasn’t quite sunk in. “I still cannot believe that that’s real,” she explains. “It’s a huge privilege to get to be a part of a story that so many people love and, despite its fantastical elements, so many people resonate with.”

How To Train Your Dragon was, by any measure, a phenomenon, becoming the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2025 and the second-highest-grossing live-action/animated hybrid of all time. And Parker, as the self-assured, competitive champion of the Dragon Races and love interest to the main character Hiccup (played by Mason Thames), was at the center of it—bright, energetic, and wholly convincing. She’s already back on set for a sequel, where she’s corresponding with us, this time joined by Cate Blanchett, who returns as Hiccup’s long-lost mother after first voicing the character in the DreamWorks animated franchise. When asked what audiences can expect, Parker offers exactly two words on the subject: “Cate Blanchett.” Then adds, “That’s all you ever really need, isn’t it? Getting to continue on with that story and make the second movie is nothing short of a dream. The feeling of stepping back onto set was so comfy and familiar, which is all down to the atmosphere and bonds that were created making the first movie. It has all that same magic. I cannot wait for everyone to get to watch.”

While the second installment is still in production, Parker’s already making moves into markedly different territories: a horror film from Osgood Perkins, whose recent work (Longlegs from 2024, and The Monkey from 2025) has made him one of the most talked-about filmmakers today; and the comedy Poetic License, the directorial debut from actor Maude Apatow. Neither is an obvious next step for someone who could, presumably, headline anything she wanted. On the Perkins project, she’s keeping her cards close to her chest, joking, “I don’t think I can say too much as I fear some Neon overlords will be coming for me, but the movie is fucking wild. I’ve never read anything like it.” Still, her feelings about the experience are telling. “I’ve never felt sadder to leave a character behind, and while shooting, I fell madly in love with Lola Tung and Lily Collias.”

On Apatow’s feature directorial debut, filmed in Atlanta, Parker talks about it like the kind of formative set experience she’s going to refer back to for years. “That whole shoot felt like one big college experience for a bunch of twenty-year-olds that never got to go,” and like many of us frequently do when we miss someone, she says she finds herself “constantly going through my camera roll reeling that I’m not still in Atlanta with them all.” Speaking about her castmates, she’s quick to sing her praises, “Leslie [Mann] is a force of nature. Andrew [Barth Feldman] is the sweetest and funniest boy in all the land. And I am silently dreading how many people are about to have a crush on Cooper Hoffman, who is charm personified.” With what comes next, she is characteristically unbothered: “Anything and everything. I’d like to continue to get to work with lovely people. I’ve been pretty lucky so far.” And if she calls it luck, it’s clear she’s making the most of every bit of it.

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Photography Alessandro Burzigotti
Fashion Nilo Akbari
Makeup Mee Kee using Armani Beauty
Hair James Catalano (The Wall Group)
Casting Kev Ponce
Production Locals Worldwide
Hair Assistant Rogerio da Silva
Photo Assistant Luke Regan
Styling Assistant Roksi
Production Assistants Elwood Rainey, Simão Nogueira
Makeup Assistant Natsu Tomonaga