Disneyhas dropped a new teaser for the live-actionLilo & Stitch.
The teaser begins with images straight fromThe Lion King—the rising sun. Giraffe and zebra racing somewhere. Gold text on a black background says “Long Live The King”. Where you’d expect to see Rafiki lofting a lion cub toward the sky for the animal kingdom to behold, it’sStitch—wearing inflatable floaties.
He then splashes down into the ocean. A quick cut reveals, “Only in theaters May 23.” The scene concludes with Stitch saying “hi” to everyone.
Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King Review — Oh I Just Can’t Wait For This to be Over
While Aladdin got a fairly decent treatment in the Disney Classic Games port, The Lion King is left just as barebones and hard as the original.
A Change In Strategy: Theaters Still Matter
As normal as “only in theaters” seems, that wasn’t always the case. Initially, the remake was announced as direct toDisney+. That was November 2022 and was part of a trend with streamers testing the viability of skipping theaters altogether.
One example was theKnives Outsequel,Glass Onion. Netflix agreed to a one-week “preview” release in 600 theaters between November 23rd and 29th (also 2022). After the window closed,Glass Onionwas only available on Netflix.
Just last month, Daniel Craig, in an interview withThe New Yorker, actually talked about how upset he was about the whole thing.
Of course, it saddens me, especially with movies likeKnives Out. Like I said, it’s a non-effects movie. It did all the things it should have done, and people went to see it. So, of course, it saddens me that people won’t have that experience. Does it anger me? I don’t think I can go that far. But it saddens me. But we’ll see. I have no idea what the plan is for this third one now, so I don’t know.
Demand for seeing films in theaters hasn’t gone away. And I expect Disney realized that, for now, that tradition holds strong, which explains the change in course forLilo & Stitch.
Stitch Is A Being Of Chaos
Today’s official teaser also came with a new poster, also in the vein ofThe Lion King. In the trailer, it’s definitely Lilo holding Stitch in the air. But in the poster, it’s a mostly out-of-frame Rafiki. The tagline? “Destined For Destruction”.
Disney really is leaning into Stitch’s chaotic nature. A previous poster showed Stitch chewing on a Kakamora, one of the coconut-like pirates from theMoanafranchise.Moana2is currently in theaters,, but a live-action version will be released on August 10, 2025.
With a live-actionSnow Whitearriving on July 03, 2025, we might see another Stitch teaser where he stares into a mirror or eats an apple.
The Creative Team And Cast
While Chris Sanders wrote and directed the animatedLilo & Stitch, he’s only reprising his role as the voice of the little blue wrecking ball.
Chris Kekaniokalani Bright wrote the adaptation. This is Bright’s debut feature. His only credit on IMDB is a short film called “Tsuru” from 2014.
Behind the camera is Dean Fleischer Camp, who directed one of the sleeper hits of 2022,Marcel the Shell with Shoes On( distributed by A24). So tacklingLilo & Stitchis a huge step up, but it feels like an appropriate evolution, given the creativity and charm on display inMarcel.
Voicing Lilo is 7-year-oldMaia Kealoha, in what will be a breakthrough role. Rounding out the cast, you have Zach Galifianakis, Billy Magnussen, Tia Carrere, and Hannah Waddingham.
