Once you’re part of the ohana, you’re part of it in animation and live-action.
Chris Sanders, who co-created, co-wrote and co-directed the original Lilo & Stitch animated movie, will now direct Disney’s sequel to its live-action Lilo & Stitch megahit.
Sanders, who also voiced the character of Stitch in both animated and live-action form, was already deeply involved with the feature as its screenwriter. The sequel is now on the wave to production, with shooting due to begin later this year.
Jonathan Eirich, who produced the initial live-action remake, is back as producer via Rideback. The company’s Ryan Halprin is exec producing.
Stitch centers on a lonely girl who befriends a blue puppy that turns out to be an escaped alien engineered to be a weapon of mass destruction. The original movie produced some memorable lines, such as “Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind,” and was followed by two direct-to-video sequels, Stitch! The Movie and Stitch Has a Glitch, as well as Lilo & Stitch: The Series.
Disney rebooted the title with the live-action feature that, thanks to families and Gen Zers who grew up on the original, powered to over $1 billion dollars at the box office, $423.7 million of that domestically.
The sequel will be a brand-new story.
The 2025 movie was directed by Dean Fleischer Camp (Marcel the Shell with Shoes On). Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes were the writers.
Rideback’s next feature is Best of the Best, a competition dance comedy that will debut on Netflix in September.
Sanders is mighty name in the animation field. He co-wrote and co-directed the original animated movie with Dean DeBlois and the two later went to work together on the first How to Train Your Dragon. Sanders then co-wrote and co-directed The Croods with Kirk DeMicco and solo directed The Wild Robot, DreamWorks Animation’s 2024 adaption of the Chris Brown book that won nine Annie Awards and scored three Oscar nominations. He is developing a sequel, The Wild Robot Escapes.
The Stitch sequel will not be Sanders’ live-action debut. That was made with the 2020 adaptation of The Call of the Wild, which starred Harrison Ford along with plenty of CGI animals, and likely a handy training ground for his new project.
He is repped by WME and Lichter Grossman.
Chris Sanders
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
