Lilo & Stitch Made $900M, So Disney's Rushing a Sequel
For now, Lilo & Stitch 2 is officially in development, with no release date yet. But with nearly a billion dollars on the table and a fanbase still riding the nostalgia wave, Disney clearly isn't wasting any time.
After pulling in a massive $914 million at the global box office, Disney's Lilo & Stitch live-action remake is officially getting a sequel. The announcement dropped on June 26 — a.k.a. Stitch Day (6/26, get it?) — with a short teaser showing Stitch joyriding through Walt Disney Studios before skidding out the title Lilo & Stitch 2.
The promo didn't offer much else. No director named. No cast confirmed. Just Stitch yelling "Here we go!" and spinning donuts on the studio lot.
Whether Dean Fleischer Camp — who directed the first live-action film — is returning is still unknown. Reviews were solid, even with backlash over casting and changes to the original story, so it's anyone's guess whether Disney sticks with the same team or not.
What fans really want to know now is: what exactly is this sequel adapting?
Disney already made a bunch of animated Lilo & Stitch sequels back in the day — all direct-to-video. The most likely candidates are:
- Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (2005) – where Stitch malfunctions and goes rogue until his ohana helps him recover
- Stitch! The Movie (2003) – which introduced dozens of other experiments, plus the return of Gantu and a villain named Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel (a literal evil space gerbil)
If Disney leans into Glitch, it keeps the story small and emotional. If they go the Stitch! route, it means weird villains, lots of CGI creatures, and possibly the most expensive rodent ever rendered in live-action. Neither would be shocking, but there's also a strong chance they go off-script and write something brand new.
There are a few big continuity questions too. The live-action remake left out Gantu, changed the ending, and made Jumba (played by Zach Galifianakis) more villainous than his animated counterpart. If he's sticking around, they may soften him up for the sequel — especially if they go with the "Stitch goes haywire" plotline.