2025’s Lilo & Sтιтch has proven to be a major hit, generating huge anticipation for its follow-up, so here is everything we know about the sequel, Lilo & Sтιтch 2. The 2025 movie, which was directed by Dean Fleischer Camp, was a live-action remake of Disney’s 2002 animated movie of the same name, which spawned a major multimedia franchise.
Lilo & Sтιтch reviews were strong from both critics and audiences. In addition to earning a Fresh score of 71% from 205 different critics’ reviews on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the 2025 movie earned a Verified H๏τ audience score of 93% from 10,000 verified ratings, which gave it an average score of 4.6 out of 5 on the Popcornmeter.
The Lilo & Sтιтch box office has also performed extraordinarily well. It has considerably exceeded its reported budget of $100 million, having grossed $915.7 million worldwide as of the time of writing. This makes it the sixth highest-grossing Disney live-action remake of all time, proving how eager audiences have been for more Sтιтch in theaters.
The Latest Lilo & Sтιтch 2 News
The Filmmakers Saw Sequel Potential Early On
Ahead of the official confirmation of Lilo & Sтιтch 2, there had already been a considerable amount of chatter about the follow-up to the live-action Lilo & Sтιтch.
In fact, Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman told the Wall Street Journal that “it’s the kind of property that lends itself to more” as early as May 23, which was the day the movie debuted. Producer Jonathan Eirich expressed similar sentiments while speaking with The Independent that same day. Read his comments below:
I think it’s such a rich world that [original co-director] Chris Sanders and others have built out, which is exciting. You’ve got the space opera element, which is so fun. We sort of start the movie in that world. You have other characters – we do a quick little nod to Angel and Leroy in the movie that fans might catch, when Jumba is scrolling through the other experiments. So there are other things you could touch on.
I’m always just nervous that people love this one, so I just want this one out in the world first! Hopefully audiences love it, and if they tell us they do, then it would be exciting to explore more stories in this universe.
While Dean Fleischer Camp expressed similar sentiments during that same weekend, during which Lilo & Sтιтch broke Top Gun Maverick‘s record to earn the highest-grossing Memorial Day weekend debut of all time at the domestic box office, not much more word about a potential sequel came as the movie continued to climb the charts.
Lilo & Sтιтch 2 Confirmation
The Sequel Is In The Works
As of June 26, 2025 (a date, 6/26, that aligns with Sтιтch’s original status as Experiment 626), the live-action Lilo & Sтιтch 2 is officially in development. Walt Disney Studios made the announcement on their official X account, alongside a video of Sтιтch wreaking havoc on the studio lot. See their announcement post below:
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No other details about the project have surfaced at the time of writing. Considering how quickly the movie has gone into development, it seems possible that Dean Fleischer Camp could still be involved in the follow-up. However, precedent shows that this is not a guarantee. For the four Disney live-action remakes with sequels or prequels, no original director has ever returned.
Previously, Kevin Lima replaced Stephen Herek for 102 Dalmatians, James Bobin replaced Tim Burton for Alice Through the Looking Glᴀss, Joachim Rønning replaced Robert Stromberg for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, and Barry Jenkins replaced Jon Favreau for Mufasa: The Lion King.
However, all of those live-action follow-up movies came out four years or more after the original project, so the delays in their creation may be partially responsible for the filmmaking teams behind them ultimately looking so different.
Lilo & Sтιтch 2’s Potential Story Details
There Are Multiple Avenues It Could Go Down
Currently, story details about Lilo & Sтιтch 2 are being kept тιԍнтly under wraps. However, in an interview published on the 2025 movie’s opening weekend, Dean Fleischer Camp spoke with Hipertextual and hinted that “there are some Easter eggs and maybe we’ll see Gantu in a sequel.”
The director is referring to Captain Gantu, a character who was voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson and was the second-in-command to the Grand Councilwoman. Although Gantu was the antagonist of the original animated movie, he did not appear in the remake, which positioned Sтιтch’s creator Jumba as the villain of the story.
It is possible that Lilo & Sтιтch 2 could be based on the stories of the original animated movie’s direct-to-video follow-ups Lilo & Sтιтch 2: Sтιтch Has a Glitch, (which follows Lilo and Jumba trying to save Sтιтch’s life when he begins behaving erratically) and Sтιтch! The Movie (which follows Gantu returning to kidnap Jumba and find his other 625 experiments).
However, given the fact that Lilo & Sтιтch switched antagonists, adapting either of these stories wouldn’t quite make sense. Both of them require Jumba to be allied with Sтιтch, Lilo, and their makeshift family. Given the fact that Jumba has no redemption arc in the 2025 remake, this prospect seems highly unlikely.
There is also no precedent for Disney having their live-action follow-ups be based on animated sequels. Although both the original Lion King and 101 Dalmatians had animated sequels, neither Mufasa nor 102 Dalmatians drew direct inspiration from those follow-ups.
Characters from the animated follow-ups to the original movie will still most likely return…
Ultimately, it seems more likely that Lilo & Sтιтch 2 will feature Gantu stepping in as the villain for an original sequel story with CIA agent Cobra Bubbles and the original character Tūtū, Lilo’s neighbor, taking Jumba’s place in Lilo’s family.
However, characters from the animated follow-ups to the original movie will still most likely return. The biggest Lilo & Sтιтch sequel Easter egg is one to which both Dean Fleischer Camp and Jonathan Eirich referred, which is that Jumba’s other experiments, Leroy and Angel, exist in the live-action universe.
Angel (Experiment 624), who is Sтιтch’s love interest, first appeared in the 2003 animated show Lilo & Sтιтch: The Series, while Leroy (Experiment 629), a purely evil version of Sтιтch that Jumba is forced to create, was introduced in the 2006 Disney Channel movie Leroy & Sтιтch, which concluded the continuity of both the series and the original animated movies.
The character who made Jumba create Leroy was the villain Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel, who was introduced after the original animated movie and did not appear in the live-action remake.
Either character could very well have a natural place in a new original story, and Leroy’s return in particular could fit well with Jumba coming back as the main antagonist of the series, as he may seek revenge using his greatest weapon.
Lilo & Sтιтch 2’s Cast Details
Many Characters Could Return
So far, no cast members of the Lilo & Sтιтch cast have been officially confirmed to return. However, given the swiftness of the sequel’s development, it is possible that the majority of them could return to reprise their original roles.
The Lilo & Sтιтch Cast |
|
---|---|
Actor |
Character |
Maia Kealoha |
Lilo Pelekai |
Chris Sanders |
Sтιтch |
Sydney Elizebeth Agudong |
Nani Pelekai |
Zach Galifianakis |
Dr. Jumba Jookiba |
Billy Magnussen |
Agent Wendell Pleakley |
Courtney B. Vance |
Cobra Bubbles |
Amy Hill |
Tūtū |
Tia Carrere |
Mrs. Kekoa |
Kaipo Dudoit |
David Kawena |
Hannah Waddingham |
Grand Councilwoman |
Because of their prominence in the overall franchise, it seems highly likely that the production will seek to have the actors playing Lilo, Sтιтch, Nani, Jumba, Pleakley, Cobra Bubbles, the Grand Councilwoman and David return. Additionally, while Tūtū is a new original character, she has become Lilo’s new legal guardian, so it would make sense to have Amy Hill return alongside them.
The only character who doesn’t have a natural place in the sequel is the movie’s other major original character, the social worker Mrs. Kekoa. Additionally, there may not even be room Tia Carrere if Lilo & Sтιтch 2 makes good on the promise of casting Gantu, Angel, and Leroy, or some combination of the three of them.
Source(s): Wall Street Journal, The Independent, Walt Disney Studios/X, & Hipertextual