'Lilo & Stitch' Remake Trailer Finally Gives First Look At Human Cast

After all this time, we finally get a look at Maia Kealoha as Lilo

It is March 12, 2025. There are 72 days until May 23, the date that Disney is set to release its live-action remake of the 2002 animated classic Lilo & Stitch. Since November…the marketing has been exclusively Stitch-focused, with a Moana 2-themed poster, a Mufasa/Lion King-hijacking teaser that harkened back to the original film’s marketing, and other things like a Super Bowl spot with gridiron chaos. That changed Wednesday with the release of the remake’s (first?) full trailer, finally bringing in Lilo and the rest of the human cast.

The trailer, full of Stitch’s signature chaos and troublemaking, starts with (stop me if this sounds 1:1 to any of you) Stitch’s jailbreak, with Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham as the voice of the Grand Councilwoman. The red police cruiser he steals crashes into Hawaii, where Lilo believes it to be a shooting star, which she wishes upon to make a friend, as she’s been having a rough go of it at her dance class. She’s freaked out at the pet store where she finds Stitch. She’s of course a young orphan being raised by her teenaged sister, Nani. Lilo bonds with her new pet ingraining the Hawaiian concept of “ohana,” or family, and that family does not get left behind or forgotten. Even the Elvis Presley elements of the original film remain, with “(You're the) Devil in Disguise” playing as Nani, Lilo, and Stitch are in a car ride, Stitch ejects a CD and tosses it out of the car. He even butt drags to show how dog he is, even as other residents are skeptical. Of course the iconic surf shot is recreated.

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Interestingly, Stitch’s other pursuers, namely agent Cobra Bubbles, played by Courtney B. Vance, and creator Jumba Jookiba and Agent Wendy Pleakley, played by Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen, are some of the last things seen in the trailer. Heck, it seems Jumba and Pleakley will be deploying alien tech for their disguises as they are seen fully and convincingly human, though it briefly goes off for the latter, exposing a pretty faithful true form. The beloved ice cream man on the beach drops his what now seems to be shaved ice on the ground at the sight of the malfunction, on the other side of a portal.

This new Lilo & Stitch introduces Maia Kealoha as Lilo as she stars alongside the original film’s director Chris Sanders reprising his role as Stitch because that was a lesson learned from Christopher Robin. In addition to the already mentioned, there’s Sydney Elizebeth Agudong as Nani, Kaipo Dudoit as David Kawena, Nani’s love interest Tia Carrere, the original Nani as new character Mrs. Kekoa, a social worker, and Amy Hill, the voice of Mrs. Hasagawa in the original film and subsequent productions, is Tūtū, David’s grandmother. David’s original voice Jason Scott Lee will play the lūʻau manager.

Dean Fleischer Camp, who directed Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, directs this Lilo & Stitch from a Chris Kekaniokalani Bright script from a previous draft by Mike Van Waes. It is produced by Jonathan Eirich, p.g.a. and Dan Lin, both from Rideback, with Tom Peitzman, Ryan Halprin, Louie Provost and Thomas Schumacher as executive producers.

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Source: Variety