Jay Baruchel 'immensely proud' of 'How to Train Your Dragon', but says door is now closed (exclusive)

Jay Baruchel is “immensely proud” of his work on the How to Train Your Dragon movies, but doesn’t think he’ll ever play his character again.

The 38-year-old actor and filmmaker played the timid Hiccup — son of the village chief — in the DreamWorks trilogy, which ran from 2010 until 2019.

His bond of friendship with Night Fury dragon Toothless captured the attention of fans and left many in tears at the conclusion of last year’s threequel The Hidden World.

Read more: Behind-the-scenes footage of How to Train Your Dragon cast

The movies proved to be among the most successful and beloved in the history of DreamWorks, earning $1.64bn (£1.25m) cumulatively across the three films.

Baruchel told Yahoo Movies UK he was “immensely proud of my minuscule participation” in the series.

He added: “It's crazy that there's three of them. They are these really special gifts to the world — the pinnacle of artistic achievement in animation. I sincerely believe that.

“I am so f***ing lucky they let me be at a microphone a few times. I am proud of being part of something that means what these movies mean to people.”

Read more: Baruchel says third Dragon film is the “strongest”

Baruchel said he was particularly pleased to be a part of a story that was so significant for young audiences.

“When you adore something when you're young, you adore it in a pure, all-consuming way,” the actor said.

“I know that nothing, no happiness in my adult life, has matched my happiest moments as a child.”

Baruchel added that the friendship he made with How to Train Your Dragon director Dean DeBlois also proved useful in making his new horror movie Random Acts of Violence.

“Dean DeBlois saw a rough cut of Random Acts like a year and a half ago,” said Baruchel.

“He gave me a lot of notes — no, actually he gave me a lot of encouragement and almost no notes. He was super cool about it and a big booster.”

Read more: Baruchel discusses Random Acts and his obsession with true crime

Baruchel described working on the Dragon films as a “pretty special experience”, but said that “the door does definitely seem to be closed” in terms of returning to that world.

Random Acts of Violence is available to stream on Shudder now.