Disney’s Live-Action ‘Lilo & Stitch’ Remake Adds Billy Magnussen And Sydney Elizebeth Agudong

The two join Maia Kealoha and Zach Galifianakis in the Disney+-bound hybrid film

Billy Magnussen and Sydney Elizebeth Agudong have joined Disney’s hybrid-ish remake of their 2002 animated film Lilo & Stitch earmarked for Disney+.

While Magnussen’s role is kept under spinach wraps and green tea, Agudong has been cast as Nani, Lilo’s older sister and legal guardian. Lilo herself will be played by Maia Kealoha, who understandably at her young age as the character calls for, is a relative newcomer. Zach Galifianakis of Late World and The Lego Batman Movie has also been cast in the film, reportedly as Pleakley but other sources have not corroborated.

Whatever his role is, it will not be Magnussen’s first in the modern run of Disney live-action remakes of their animated films. He first played Prince Anders, one of Princess Jasmine’s potential suitors original to 2019’s Aladdin remake. Heck, the character was announced at the end of that year to be getting his own spinoff film, which as of last May was going through rewrites. His most recent film credits are No Time To Die and The Many Saints of Newark as young Paulie Walnuts, while he also had a major role in the HBO Max series Made for Love. His next film roles are set to be the Road House remake starring Jake Gyllenhaal, and the Spy Kids reboot subtitled Armageddon, with Gina Rodriguez and Zachary Levi.

As for Agudong, she’s Hawaii-born and raised, specifically on Kaua’i. Her previous credits include NCIS, On My Block and the feature film West Michigan. She just wrapped as the lead role in the independent film At Your Feet. One might recognize her sister Siena from starring in the Netflix sitcom No Good Nick with Sean Astin and Melissa Joan Hart, as well as their Resident Evil series, the film Alex & Me and the Disney Channel original movie Upside-Down Magic.

The Hawaii-set story is about Lilo, a lonely orphaned girl under the care of her sister Nani with social workers on their backs. She ends up bonding with a dog-like alien named Stitch, who was genetically engineered to be a force of destruction (and has his own bounty hunters in pursuit) over a shared sense of family. And a heavy dose of Elvis Presley along the way. Marcel the Shell With Shoes On director Dean Fleischer Camp is directing. Chris Kekaniokalani Bright wrote the script that adapts Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois’s original.

Source: Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter