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Last year, the Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strikes halted production on every studio project for almost six months, delaying highly-anticipated releases like Deadpool 3, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and more. While Deadpool 3 has just recently finished filming ahead of its July 2024 release date, Rachel Zegler’s Snow White was pushed back a whole year with a new 2025 release. However, one other controversial Disney live-action film is expected to resume filming next week.
Disney’s Lilo & Stitch is a beloved 2002 animated film about a young Hawaiian girl and the alien monster she helps rehabilitate from murderous to loving. Stitch has become one of the most popular Disney characters from the last few decades, and the film spawned a sequel and a Disney Channel series and is now getting its own live-action treatment. Inside the Magic reported last year that Disney had green-lit the remake amid backlash for its other live-action releases.
2023 wasn’t the best year for the Walt Disney Company across the board. As Florida Governor Ron DeSantis attacked Walt Disney World, guests were cancelling Magic Key passes with complaints about rising costs and declining park experiences, Marvel saw its worst-performing releases since the Marvel Cinematic Universe was created in 2008, and Disney lost its crown for the first time in over a decade to Universal Pictures for highest-performing studio. Many have started to wonder if Disney has entered its flop era, and the disappointing performances of its live-action releases last year didn’t help anything.
While the live-action Little Mermaid performed decently well despite racist backlash over Halle Bailey’s casting for Ariel, Peter Pan & Wendy, a Disney+ release, tanked, as did The Haunted Mansion. In the midst of its live-action flops, fans expressed disappointment at the obvious cash-grab of Disney remaking its animated classics despite being poorly received across the board after 2015’s Cinderella. Although the studio has had a few successful remakes, including 2017’s Beauty and the Beast and 2019’s Aladdin, for the most part, Disney’s live-action releases have been consistently met with disappointment and confusion from fans.
Despite that, the studio announced several new live-action releases were in the works last year, including Tangled, Hercules, The Princess and the Frog, Moana, and Lilo & Stitch. The Lilo & Stitch announcement was met with some backlash about its casting choices, as many claimed that Sydney Agudong was too light-skinned to be playing Nani, Lilo’s sister, and Kahiau Machado, who was cast as David, Nani’s boyfriend, was caught using the N-word a few years ago. It seemed as though the remake was doomed from the start, and many hoped that its delay during the strikes would lead to its cancellation.
However, last month it was reported by industry insider @DanielRPK that Disney is still moving forward on the project, with a rumored Disney+ release date of June 2024. Now, @TheDisInsider has confirmed that production will resume filming sometime next week, which would give production a limited amount of time to meets its supposed June release, although it’s not impossible. The remake is still unpopular, with many comments online questioning why it wasn’t canceled, but Disney seems to be all-in with its live-action choices, controversial or not, so fans can likely expect several production updates and announcements throughout the year as the studio works hard to recover from its 2023 losses.
We also recently reported on the rumor that Black Panther (2019) star Michael B. Jordan was being eyed to take on the iconic titular role of the Hercules live-action remake, another production that’s seen its own share of controversy. Director Guy Ritchie has dropped out of the production as of last week, and the production is left with more issues than a hydra has heads. It’s unclear why Disney continues to focus on live-actions given the backlash and disappointment they continue to face, but maybe 2024 will be the year to turn it around.
What do you think about a live-action Lilo & Stitch? Should Disney continue its live-action remake streak, or does it need new ideas? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!