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Over the last decade or so, Disney has been on a mission to remake their most beloved animated works and bring them into reality with live-action movies. This trend of live-action fairy tales and animated classics started with Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland (2010), with its latest addition, The Little Mermaid (2023), having received mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike and was rife with controversies and backlash. Despite the public’s worsening opinion on remakes, this has not stopped the Disney remake train.
For its newest announced stop, the 2002 animated cult classic Lilo and Stitch joins the Disney live-action roster. While ohana means family and family means no one gets left behind or forgotten, the Lilo and Stitch live-action movie has certainly been delayed numerous times. This has fans wondering if the live-action movie will be released sometime soon or if it will even happen at all.
Here’s a summary of what we know so far about the live-action Lilo and Stitch movie.
What Is Lilo and Stitch?
For the uninitiated, Lilo and Stitch (2002) is an animated movie about Lilo, a young lonely girl whose life changes when Stitch, an alien weapon of destruction that resembles a dog, crashes into her weird but peaceful Hawaiian life. As they navigate the perils of evil mad scientists, alien hunters, social services, and the ever-relatable problems that come with having a sibling, they learn about the importance of family and how families come in all shapes and oddities.
Who’s in the Cast of the Lilo and Stitch Live Action Movie?
Maia Kealoha as Lilo
Our titular heroine Lilo Pelekai, originally given voice to by Daveigh Chase, will be played by Maia Kealoha in her breakthrough role. This talented seven-year-old Native Hawaiian landed the role after an extensive casting search. With her cheerful personality and a personal love for her culture, from her passion for hula to her skills in surfing, Kealoha in this role feels like it was just meant to be.
Chris Sanders as Stitch
Chris Sanders will be reprising his voice-acting role for Experiment 626 or Stitch. There’s more to him than just a voice, though, as Chris Sanders was the one to initially pitch the lovable alien dog and later co-created the 2002 movie with Dean DeBlois. He has voiced Stitch in virtually every appearance of the character from the original movie, its many direct-to-video sequels, and the animated show on Disney Channel.
Sydney Agudong as Nani
Lilo’s older sister and legal guardian, Nani Pelekai, will be portrayed by Sydney Agudong in the live-action movie. Agudong is a Filipino-American actress born and raised in Kaua’i, Hawai’i, that has been on shows like Netflix’s On My Block, and guest starred in NCIS. The announcement of her casting has sparked some controversy among some fans of Lilo and Stitch, who feel that Agudong is comparably lighter-skinned to the dark-skinned Nani.
Zach Galifianakis as Jumba
Zach Galifianakis of The Hangover fame is cast in the role of Dr. Jumba Jookiba, the alien mad scientist that created Stitch and all 625 of his cousins (which was expanded to 628 in the following sequels). He was originally reported to play Agent Pleakly, but the official announcement confirmed that he will be playing the mad scientist who has been tasked to take back his own creation from Earth.
Billy Magnussen as Pleakley
Instead of Galifianakis, it’s Into the Woods‘ star Billy Magnussen who nabs the role of Agent Pleakley, the Earth expert sent by the United Galactic Federation to help Dr. Jookiba on the extraction mission of the dangerous Experiment 626. Together, the pair make quite the comical duo.
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Kaipo Dudoit as David
Another beloved secondary character is Nani’s chill surfer boyfriend David. Native Hawaiian Kahiau Machado was originally announced for the role and received the same backlash as Agudong for color casting. The controversies continued as some of Machado’s social media posts were uncovered to have used racial slurs, which ultimately led to the role being given to another newcomer, Kaipo Dudoit, who fans have remarked to look closer to David. Jason Scott Lee, David’s voice actor in the original, is also said to have a small role in the movie as a luau manager.
Courtney B. Vance as Cobra Bubbles
Tony and Emmy winner Courtney B. Vance will be taking the mantle from voice actor Ving Rhames as the live action’s Cobra Bubbles, the former CIA agent turned social security worker. This character is a favorite among fans and was thought to be written out of the live-action due to a casting call for a new character, Mrs. Kekoa, who is also a social security worker that checks on the two sisters.
Tia Carrere as Mrs. Kekoa
While Mrs. Kekoa is definitely a new addition to the movie, fans of the original might hear a familiar voice instead as Tia Carrere, the original voice actress for Nani, is cast for this role. Carrere shared that she’d be interested in returning for a live-action adaptation of Lilo and Stitch during the original movie’s 20th anniversary in 2022.
Amy Hill as Tūtū
Another returnee from the original animated film is Amy Hill, who played Mrs. Lynne Hasegawa in the animated film. She now plays a new character named Tūtū, who is David’s grandmother and a longtime neighbor of Lilo and Nani.
Why Is the Lilo and Stitch Live Action Movie Delayed?
The production of the Lilo and Stitch live-action has encountered many production delays since it was first announced in 2018. With the world having shut down most productions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the movie’s development only started up again in 2020 when director Dean Fleischer Camp was signed on, alongside Chris Kekaniokalani Bright as its newest writer replacing Mike Van Waes in adapting the script.
Filming was supposed to begin in Oahu in April 2023 but was further delayed due to an accident on its first day of filming where a costume trailer caught on fire. This delayed filming until May.
Its latest delay comes with the fallout of the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists strikes (SAG-AFTRA), which paused various productions of those in the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which includes Disney. It is said that the live-action movie was shut down with only a week left of filming to go.
When and Where Will the Lilo and Stitch Live Action Movie Come Out?
According to their IMDB page, the live-action Lilo and Stitch movie was slated for release on May 10th, 2024, but that currently seems unlikely, given that the SAG-AFTRA strikes are still ongoing. As for where it’ll be released, viewers can assume that it’ll be on Disney’s own streaming platform, Disney+, like their projects from other IPs such as Star Wars (The Mandalorian and Ashoka) and Marvel (Wandavision, Moon Knight, Secret Invasion, etc).
