Julian Dennison

Ricky keeps trying to get a response from Hec, and Julian Dennison makes the persistence both irritating and hard to resist. In Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), he plays a boy whose self-importance cannot quite conceal how badly he wants company. We laughed at his efforts with Sam Neill’s unresponsive Hec, then felt protective when the uncertainty beneath the bluster became clear. Dennison lets Ricky be a nuisance without asking us to stop caring about him.

Taika Waititi sometimes fusses over the film’s quirks, but the friendship gives it something firmer to rely on. Dennison understands that Ricky does not think he is being funny, and lets the boy’s seriousness do much of the work. Neill is a particularly useful partner because Ricky’s persistence has someone unresponsive to work against. The sweetness survives because Dennison has not tidied away the habits that would make Ricky exhausting company.

He began with a supporting role in Shopping (2013), then gained international notice with Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Russell Collins in Deadpool 2 (2018) took him into Hollywood supporting work. He continued with New Zealand-led films, taking the lead as Josh Waaka in Uproar (2023). Those leading parts matter when considering what he can do, because the larger productions have not always given him more to play.

How to Train Your Dragon (2025) offers much less room. Dean DeBlois’s live-action remake casts him as Fishlegs, one of the trainees given much the same jokes as before and little else. Nick Frost’s Gobber has the film’s best timing, while Dennison has too little material to make a comparable impression. We found the film decent but needlessly slow, and the thinness of his part tells us more about the script than his abilities. Start with Hunt for the Wilderpeople; do not take Fishlegs as the measure of what Dennison can do.