Another classic Disney movie is joining the live-action remake family — or should we say, joining the ‘ohana? In 2025, a few years shy of a quarter-century after the original movie came out, Disney is releasing a live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch, the beloved film about a young Hawaiian girl and the new “dog” she adopts, only to discover that Stitch is not a dog at all, but a genetically engineered critter who is wanted across the galaxy. Before Stitch causes a ruckus in movie theaters next spring, here’s everything you need to know about the new Lilo & Stitch movie.
When will it be released?
(Photo by Disney)
Lilo & Stitch will hit theaters on May 23, 2025. It’s been a long road to that date, though. A live-action Lilo & Stitch remake has been in the works for a while, with some of the earliest discussions dating back to 2018. In 2020, Wicked director John M. Chu was considered as a director of the remake, though Dean Fleischer Camp (Marcel the Shell with Shoes On) ultimately ended up behind the camera. For a while, it was unclear whether Lilo & Stitch would be released in theaters at all — as recently as 2022, the movie was set to debut on Disney+. However, perhaps in part because the streaming bubble is beginning to burst and many studios are rediscovering the lucrative benefits of a theatrical release, the House of Mouse opted to officially pivot to a theatrical release last summer.
Who’s behind the new film?
(Photo by Angela Weiss/Getty Images)
While the original animated Lilo & Stitch was co-directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, Dean Fleischer Camp is helming the live-action remake. (Sanders still has a major part in the new movie, though — more on that in a second.)
Fleischer Camp is best known as the co-creator of the popular webseries Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, which he made with his then-wife Jenny Slate. The two returned to the lovable, low-key character for the 2021 film of the same name, Fleischer Camp’s debut narrative feature, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Lilo & Stitch is only his second feature (he made a documentary in 2016), but Fleischer Camp clearly has experience blending animation and live-action, especially where cute creatures are involved, and he has a grasp on the heartfelt emotions that helped make Marcel the Shell and the original Lilo & Stitch so beloved.
Chris Kekaniokalani Bright is the credited writer for the remake, and Mike Van Waes was involved as the initial writer starting with the 2018 iteration of the movie. Sanders and DeBlois co-wrote the animated original in addition to directing it.
Who’s in the cast?
(Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images, Disney)
Chris Sanders, who just directed one of 2024’s best-reviewed animated films in The Wild Robot, may not be sitting in the director’s chair again for the live-action Lilo & Stitch remake, but he still has an important part to play. Sanders reprises his role as the voice of Stitch, the chaotic little alien who mostly utters gibberish but who can understand and decently emulate human speech.
Sanders, who started his animation career at Disney, has been working with DreamWorks Animation, where his credits include the first How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods movies. However, he returned to the House of Mouse to once again voice his creation. (This was not always a sure thing, however. As recently as 2022, Sanders said he hadn’t yet been asked.)
(Photo by Darryl Oumi, Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)
Newcomer Maia Kealoha plays the other title character, Lilo. The Hawaiian actress was seven years old when she was cast, following a nationwide search. In the original animated film, Daveigh Chase voiced Lilo. Former Nickelodeon star Sydney Agudong plays Nani, Lilo’s older sister and overburdened legal guardian. Agudong, who was born and raised in Kaua’i, Hawai’i, takes over for Tia Carrere, who voiced Nani in the original.
That said, Carrere has a new role in the film. She plays Mrs. Kekoa, a social worker assigned to Nani and Lilo’s case who is sympathetic to Nani’s plight but who must still put Lilo’s needs first. Mrs. Kekoa was not a character in the original film, where instead Ving Rhames’ ex-CIA agent Cobra Bubbles was Lilo’s social worker. Fear not; Cobra Bubbles is still in the live-action remake, where he’ll be played by The People vs. O.J. Simpson star Courtney B. Vance.
Kaipo Dudoit plays Nani’s goodhearted surfer boyfriend, David. (Jason Scott Lee voiced him in the original, and Lee has a small role in the new film as a lūʻau manager.) Kahiau Machado was originally cast in the role but was replaced following the discovery of old social media posts containing racist slurs. Amy Hill voiced the fruit stand owner Mrs. Hasagawa in the animated film and spin-off TV series, but in the remake, she has a new role as a new character, Tūtū, Lilo and Nani’s kindly neighbor.
(Photo by Michael Buckner, Variety/Getty Images)
On the alien side of the cast, Zach Galifianakis has been cast as Dr. Jumba Jookiba, the alien mad scientist who created Stitch and who is under great pressure to retrieve his escaped creation. Billy Magnussen, who previously had a role in the live-action Aladdin remake, plays Agent Pleakley, an agent of the United Galactic Federation who professes to be an Earth expert who tries to help Dr. Jumba catch Stitch.
Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham has also been listed as a member of the cast, though her role has not yet been revealed. It seems highly likely, though, that she’ll be playing the Grand Councilwoman of the Galactic Federation who tasks Jumba and Pleakley with recovering Stitch.
What will the story be?
(Photo by Walt Disney Studios)
Although the addition of some new characters suggests that there have been some changes (and it’s likely that the live-action remake will have a longer runtime than the original’s brisk 85 minutes), it seems reasonable to assume that Lilo & Stitch will follow the same basic plot as the original.
Lilo is a precocious young girl living in Kauaʻi under the care of her older sister, Nani, following their parents’ death. A bit of a misfit at school with a tense relationship with her stressed sister, Lilo is in need of a companion. She gets one when she adopts Stitch from the dog shelter — only, it turns out Stitch is not a dog but in fact Experiment 626, an illicit genetic experiment who escaped the clutches of the alien United Galactic Federation. Stitch is, to put it mildly, a troublemaker, but despite the chaos he causes, Lilo and Stitch bond, creating a beautiful found family that lives up to the Hawaiian concept of ʻohana.
The original Lilo & Stitch was a box-office success, grossing more than $273 million worldwide and earning a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards. (It would lose to Spirited Away.) Prior to this live-action remake, Lilo & Stitch spawned three direct-to-video sequels and three spin-off TV series, and it’s widely regarded as one of the better Disney movies to emerge from the period following the end of the celebrated “Disney Renaissance” of the late-’80s and ‘90s. The live-action remake, therefore, has a lot to live up to.
Are there any trailers?
A big part of the plot of Lilo & Stitch is that people mistake Stitch for an “ugly dog” rather than some alien monster. That’s easier to pull off in more stylized traditional animation, but live-action remakes tend to go for a greater level of realism. This meant there was a lot of pressure on the CGI re-imagining of Stitch, which needed to look like the Stitch fans are familiar with while being realistic but not too realistic. Disney revealed the design at the 2024 D23 in August and the general response was… pretty good!
In November 2024, more images of Stitch were revealed, as well as the first teaser trailer, which features him stomping through a bunch of sand castles — including one that looks like Disney’s iconic logo. Then a second teaser debuted in December 2024, looking suspiciously like a promo for The Lion King, before a pair of hands raise Stitch — wearing arm floaties — up to the sky and drop him into the shallow waters of a sandy beach. Neither teaser really reveals much about the film, other than how Stitch will look and move, and what the tone of the film will be, but they’ve gotten fans excited nonetheless.
Lilo & Stitch
(2025)
is scheduled for release on May 23, 2025.
