Lilo & Stitch live-action film: Release date, cast, trailer, and everything we know so far
After a series of sneak peeks over the last couple of months, Disney shared the official trailer of the upcoming live-action Lilo & Stitch, giving the best look at some of its iconic characters. The two-minute-twenty-five-second trailer was unveiled on Wednesday, March 12, 2025.
It shows more of the titular blue creature and the young Hawaiian girl, but also brings to life the characters of Cobra Bubbles, Jumba and Pleakly.
The latest sneak peeks for the live-action movie, which is coming to movie theaters on May 23, 2025, also showed off an interesting twist for the Kweltikwan Jumba and the self-proclaimed "Earth expert," Pleakly. Jumba is known for his large, rotund, sloth-like build with pale pink skin and four eyes while Pleakly is his opposite, with a slender, beige-green appearance, egg-shaped head, antenna, and a single eye.
However, in the official trailer, Jumba and Pleakly won't be donning their alien forms much. In an interesting twist, the live-action Lilo & Stitch brings the two characters disguised as their human actors, as seen in the trailer. Billy Magnussen plays Agent Pleakly, while Zach Galifianakis brings Jumba's character to life. A short clip at the end of the trailer also sees Pleakly briefly return to his alien form.
Everything to know about the upcoming live-action version of Lilo & Stitch
Around 21 years after Disney's 2002 animated classic Lilo & Stitch first came out, its live-action version will finally be coming to the big screen. Disney first announced the adaptation in 2018, with Mike Van Wales initially slated to write the script and Wicked's Jon M. Chu for the director role. However, the writing and directing roles eventually went to Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Dean Fleischer Camp, respectively.
As seen in the newly unveiled official trailer from Disney, Maia Kealoha will be playing the live-action version of the title character Lilo. Meanwhile, Stitch, who will be among the few animated characters in the film, will be voiced by Chris Sanders, who co-wrote and directed the original 2002 version.
He also voiced the iconic blue character in other sequels, like in the Disney Channel series of the same name and direct-to-video sequels like Stitch! The Movie.
Besides Billy Magnussen as Pleakley and Zach Galifianakis as Jumba, rounding up the cast are Sydney Agudong, who will play Lilo's older sister and guardian, Nani, and Courtney B. Vance as Cobra Bubbles. They will all play the live-action version of their characters in the film, as seen in the Lilo & Stitch movie trailer.
With the latest official trailer release, fans get a much closer look at what the adaptation brings. It shows sequences of the live-action versions of some of the most iconic scenes from the original film, promising a faithful adaption of the 2002 classic.
There's a scene in the trailer showing how Stitch arrived on Earth in fashion, and one where Stitch pretends to look like a dog at the shelter, with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, saying "ruff."
The part where Lilo talks about the Hawaiian concept of ohana also isn't lost in the trailer, as she tells Nani:
"Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten."
Moreover, the trailer has a series of clips of Stitch causing mayhem, from nearly causing traffic accidents after tossing a CD out of Nani's car window.
The live-action Lilo & Stitch opens in movie theaters starting May 23, 2025.
