{"id":3433,"date":"2026-06-12T21:19:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T21:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/06\/12\/lilo-stitch-2-to-be-directed-by-co-creator-chris-sanders-exclusive\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T21:19:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T21:19:00","slug":"lilo-stitch-2-to-be-directed-by-co-creator-chris-sanders-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/06\/12\/lilo-stitch-2-to-be-directed-by-co-creator-chris-sanders-exclusive\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Lilo &#038; Stitch 2\u2019 to be Directed by Co-Creator Chris Sanders (Exclusive)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-1236620450\">\n<header>\n<hr>\n<p> \t \t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/e\/heat-vision\/\"> \t\t<svg viewbox=\"0 0 700 65\"><path d=\"M85.6 25.2H65.3V2h-16v60.9h16V39.6h20.3v23.3h16.2V2H85.6zM119.2 62.9h41.4V48.7h-25.3v-9H159V25.5h-23.7v-9.4h25.3V2h-41.4zM194.5 2L176 62.9h15l3.2-10.4h18.9l3.2 10.4h16.9L213.8 2h-19.3zm9.5 20.9l5.4 17.3h-10.9l5.5-17.3zM237.8 16.1h17.3v46.8h16V16.1h17.2V2h-50.5zM348.5 40.7L337.4 2h-16.9l19.8 60.9h16.2L376.7 2h-16.8zM391.3 2h16v60.9h-16zM459.7 28.2l-13.6-5.7c-1.7-.7-2.9-1.4-3.7-2-.6-.5-.9-1-.9-1.8 0-.3 0-1.2 1.5-2.2 1.2-.7 2.8-1.1 4.8-1.1 2.8 0 4.8.6 5.9 1.7 1.2 1.2 2 2.6 2.3 4.3l.1.8H472l-.1-1.1c-.5-6.5-2.8-11.6-6.8-15.1S455.3.7 447.9.7c-7.2 0-13 1.6-17.3 4.8-4.3 3.2-6.5 7.6-6.5 12.8 0 4.5 1.3 8.1 3.8 10.7 2.4 2.5 5.8 4.8 10.2 6.6l12.9 5.6c2.2.9 3.6 1.6 4.4 2.3.6.5.9 1.3.9 2.4 0 .9-.3 1.5-.9 2-.7.6-1.6 1-2.8 1.2-1.3.3-2.6.4-4.1.4-1.8 0-3.4-.3-4.9-.8-1.4-.5-2.5-1.3-3.3-2.3-.8-1-1.2-2.3-1.2-3.8v-1h-15.9v1c.2 5 1.6 9.2 3.9 12.4 2.4 3.2 5.5 5.5 9.2 7 3.7 1.5 7.8 2.2 12.1 2.2 5.2 0 9.7-.7 13.4-2.1 3.8-1.4 6.7-3.5 8.7-6.3 2-2.8 3-6.3 3-10.5 0-3.9-1.2-7.3-3.5-10.1-2.1-2.6-5.6-5-10.3-7zM490.6 2h16v60.9h-16zM567.3 4.3C563 1.9 557.8.7 552 .7c-5.7 0-10.8 1.2-15.1 3.4-4.3 2.3-7.7 5.8-10.1 10.5-2.4 4.6-3.6 10.6-3.6 17.6 0 6.9 1.2 12.8 3.6 17.5 2.4 4.8 5.8 8.4 10.1 10.9 4.3 2.4 9.4 3.7 15.1 3.7 5.8 0 10.9-1.2 15.3-3.6 4.4-2.4 7.8-6 10.2-10.8 2.4-4.7 3.6-10.7 3.6-17.7 0-6.8-1.2-12.7-3.6-17.3-2.4-4.6-5.9-8.2-10.2-10.6zm-6.2 41c-2.3 3-5.2 4.5-9.1 4.5-3.7 0-6.6-1.5-8.9-4.5-2.3-3-3.5-7.4-3.5-13 0-5.3 1.2-9.6 3.5-12.6s5.2-4.4 8.9-4.4c3.8 0 6.8 1.4 9.1 4.4 2.3 3 3.5 7.2 3.5 12.5 0 5.6-1.2 10-3.5 13.1zM634.7 2v31.9L613.5 2h-16.2v60.9h16V29.5l22.3 33.4h15.1V2z\" \/><\/svg>\t\t<span>Heat Vision<\/span> \t<\/a> \t<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>The voice of Stitch is stepping behind the camera for the sequel to the $1 billion hit.<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div>\n<div>\n<figure>\n<div>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/LNS-FP-0006-H-2025.jpg?w=1296&#038;h=730&#038;crop=1\" alt=\"(L-R) Stitch in Disney\u2019s live-action Lilo and Stitch\"   height width decoding=\"async\"> \t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption> \t \t\t\t\t\t<span>(L-R) Stitch in Disney\u2019s live-action Lilo and Stitch<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite>Courtesy of Disney<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p> \t \t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/e\/heat-vision\/\"> \t\t<svg viewbox=\"0 0 250 250\"><path fill=\"none\" d=\"M0 0h250v250H0z\" \/><path d=\"M241.69 190.94c-1.35-.77-2.66-1.59-4.01-2.34-3.59-2.01-7.01-4.28-10.31-6.74-3.57-2.65-7.19-5.25-10.6-8.1-3.67-3.06-7.25-6.25-10.64-9.62-3.25-3.23-5.99-6.93-8.37-10.87-1.49-2.45-2.76-5.01-3.58-7.78-.99-3.34-1.22-6.68-.04-10.03.76-2.15 1.91-4.08 3.34-5.85 2.49-3.07 5.55-5.49 8.86-7.6 4.97-3.16 10.32-5.54 15.85-7.5 2.35-.83 4.69-1.69 7.15-2.14.43-.08.87-.14 1.28-.27.56-.18.86-.64.81-1.14-.05-.53-.38-.86-.87-1a3.9 3.9 0 00-.9-.12c-1.04-.06-2.09-.09-3.13-.14-3.83-.2-7.68-.19-11.48-.82-2.06-.34-4.15-.55-6.17-1.06a72.837 72.837 0 01-12.56-4.41c-3.66-1.68-7.12-3.67-10.2-6.3-3.46-2.97-6-6.54-7.16-11-.66-2.52-.97-5.09-1.06-7.69-.15-4.6.32-9.15 1.08-13.68 1.06-6.35 2.67-12.58 4.59-18.72 1.33-4.24 2.68-8.47 4.45-12.56 1.99-4.61 4.23-9.1 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2.34l-14.69 2.1c-.32.05-.64.14-.99.23.89 6.72 1.76 13.35 2.65 20.06.22-.12.39-.22.56-.32 13.17-7.95 26.35-15.9 39.52-23.85.17-.1.35-.21.52-.32.44-.29.46-.72.35-1.16-.12-.49-.51-.6-.94-.59zM177.35 196.61l-8.19-9.75c-.32-.38-.6-.84-1.2-.77-.62.46-.5 1.02-.29 1.63 1.8 5.36 3.58 10.73 5.36 16.09 2.97 8.94 5.94 17.88 8.92 26.82.1.29.09.66.49.87 3.93-4.92 7.84-9.81 11.79-14.76-.28-.34-.48-.61-.7-.86l-16.18-19.27zM114.04 240.22c-.64-5.95-1.27-11.91-1.9-17.87l-1.8-16.66c-.07-.67-.12-1.34-.24-2-.09-.51-.65-1.01-1.03-.97-.5.06-.75.4-.85.87-.02.1-.05.19-.08.29-2.9 9.59-5.8 19.18-8.71 28.78-.48 1.57-.95 3.14-1.45 4.79 5.64 4.02 11.24 8.02 17.04 12.15-.03-.53-.03-.79-.06-1.06-.3-2.77-.62-5.55-.92-8.32zM72.89 59.64c.16.17.32.35.49.51.34.31.65.27.95-.08.27-.32.35-.64.15-1.02-.39-.75-.78-1.49-1.14-2.25-5.66-11.69-11.31-23.39-16.96-35.09-.16-.33-.33-.65-.54-1.05-5.56.94-11.08 1.88-16.81 2.85.34.4.53.63.73.85C50.8 36.12 61.84 47.88 72.89 59.64zM133.01 38.07c.43 2.62.85 5.25 1.28 7.87.04.27.06.57.19.78.15.23.41.47.66.52.15.03.41-.28.54-.5.12-.19.13-.45.17-.68.93-5.4 1.86-10.81 2.78-16.21 1.61-9.42 3.22-18.84 4.82-28.25.06-.34.06-.68.11-1.2-5.23 2.78-10.27 5.47-15.38 8.19.64 3.93 1.26 7.74 1.89 11.56l2.94 17.92z\" \/><\/svg>\t\t<span>Logo text<\/span> \t<\/a> <\/p>\n<p> \tOnce you\u2019re part of the ohana, you\u2019re part of it in animation <em>and<\/em> live-action.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/chris-sanders\/\" id=\"auto-tag_chris-sanders_1\" data-tag=\"chris-sanders\">Chris Sanders<\/a>, who co-created, co-wrote and co-directed the original <em>Lilo &#038; Stitch<\/em> animated movie, will now direct Disney\u2019s sequel to its live-action <em>Lilo &#038; Stitch<\/em> megahit.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>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.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Jonathan Eirich, who produced the initial live-action remake, is back as producer via Rideback. The company\u2019s Ryan Halprin is exec producing.  <br \/>\u00a0<br \/><em>Stitch<\/em> 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 \u201cOhana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind,\u201d and was followed by two direct-to-video sequels,\u00a0<em>Stitch! The Movie\u00a0<\/em>and<em>\u00a0Stitch Has a Glitch,\u00a0<\/em>as well as<em>\u00a0Lilo &#038; Stitch: The Series.<\/em>\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>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.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>The sequel will be a brand-new story.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>The 2025 movie was directed by Dean Fleischer Camp (<em>Marcel the Shell with Shoes On<\/em>). Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes were the writers.  \t<\/p>\n<p> \tRideback\u2019s next feature is <em>Best of the Best<\/em>, a competition dance comedy that will debut on Netflix in September.  <\/p>\n<p> \tSanders 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 <em>How to Train Your Dragon<\/em>. Sanders then co-wrote and co-directed\u00a0<em>The Croods<\/em>\u00a0with Kirk DeMicco and solo directed <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/the-wild-robot\/\" id=\"auto-tag_the-wild-robot_1\" data-tag=\"the-wild-robot\">The Wild Robot<\/a>,<\/em> DreamWorks Animation\u2019s 2024 adaption of the Chris Brown book that won nine Annie Awards and scored three Oscar nominations. He is developing a sequel, <em>The Wild Robot Escapes<\/em>.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>The <em>Stitch<\/em> sequel will not be Sanders\u2019 live-action debut. That was made with the 2020 adaptation of <em>The Call of the Wild<\/em>, which starred Harrison Ford along with plenty of CGI animals, and likely a handy training ground for his new project.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>He is repped by WME and Lichter Grossman.<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure>\n<div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2201417888-H-2026.jpg?w=1296\" alt srcset data-lazy-sizes height=\"730\" width=\"1296\" decoding=\"async\"> \t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption> \t \t\t\t\t\t<span>Chris Sanders<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite>Alberto E. Rodriguez\/Getty Images<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\">  \t \t\tTHR Newsletters \t \t<\/h2>\n<p>Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cloud.email.hollywoodreporter.com\/signup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel>  \t<span> \t\tSubscribe\t<\/span>  \t\t\t<span>Sign Up<\/span> \t \t<\/a> \t<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heat Vision The voice of Stitch is stepping behind the camera for the sequel to the $1 billion hit. (L-R) Stitch in Disney\u2019s live-action Lilo and Stitch Courtesy of Disney Logo text Once you\u2019re part of the ohana, you\u2019re part of it in animation and live-action.\u00a0Chris Sanders, who co-created, co-wrote and co-directed the original Lilo &#038; Stitch animated movie, will now direct Disney\u2019s sequel to its live-action Lilo &#038; Stitch megahit.\u00a0Sanders, 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1978,2,1979,27,60,1980],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chris-sanders","category-hollywood","category-lilo-stitch","category-movie-news","category-movies","category-the-wild-robot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}