‘Lilo & Stitch 2’ Is Getting Nostalgic and Thinking Ahead

During last night’s D23 media event, Disney formally announced a sequel to its Lilo & Stitch remake . We already knew it was coming—it made just over $1 billion, the first live-action/animated hybrid to do so, and the studio’s big live-action winner that year—and now we now what it’ll be about.

Attendeees were teased with a brief glimpse of a pink, furry being with two glowing antennae sticking up from her head. That’d be Angel, aka Experiment 624. In the Lilo & Stitch animated series , she appeared in her titular episode, as one of many experiments made by Jumbaa that Lilo, Stitch, and friends found and took care of on a weekly basis. Each experiment has a different power, and hers is hypnosis via a siren song that flips someone’s morality. (If sung forwards, a good person becomes evil, and if played in reverse, the opposite effect.)

LILO & STITCH 2 coming summer 2028… and will feature Stitch’s pink counterpart – and love interest – Angel. pic.twitter.com/UNUarUybUB

This power works on regular people and experiments made before her, which means Stitch is immune. Nonetheless, they fall in mutual love with each other. Angel only appears in the cartoon one other time, but shows up more frequently in the anime and like her boyfriend, is a pretty popular character. The couple would go on to show up at Disney’s resorts in Tokyo, Paris, and more recently Hawaii. Disney’s also actively played up their pairing this year with a music video and some animated shorts , probably to help pave the runway for this announcement.

Kids movies love giving male leads a female counterpart—just look at How to Train Your Dragon and The Bad Guys —so it’s no surprise Angel’s brought in for Lilo & Stitch 2 . With her here, Disney’s got itself an easy foundation for future live-action Lilo films. Its other live-action remakes have had to start from scratch to justify their sequels, but that’s not an issue an here: the cartoon gave the duo plenty of experiments to chase down and domesticate, and any one (or more) of them could make for a good third movie.

But that’ll all depend on how Lilo & Stitch 2 does when it hits theaters on May 26, 2028.

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