‘Lilo & Stitch’ Co-Creator Chris Sanders Returns To Write Disney’s Live-Action Sequel

Disney has tapped Chris Sanders to write the script for its previously announced live-action sequel, Lilo & Stitch 2.

First reported by The Hollywood Reporter, this news marks a notable return for Sanders, who co-wrote and co-directed the original 2002 animated film alongside Dean DeBlois, and voiced Stitch, a role he reprised in the recent live-action remake.

At this stage, Sanders is confirmed only as the screenwriter, with no word yet on whether he will direct.

A longtime Disney veteran, Sanders began as a story artist on films like The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast. After working on the Lilo & Stitch franchise for a few years, he left Disney and joined DreamWorks, where he and Dean DeBlois adapted How to Train Your Dragon into a critically acclaimed franchise. Last year, his DreamWorks adaptation of Wild Robot pulled in $335 million at the global box office and scored an Oscar nomination, one of four the director has received throughout his career. He is also working on a previously announced sequel to that film.

Sanders’s unique blend of heartfelt storytelling and distinctive visual style has made him one of the most influential voices in modern animation and number 17 on our 2024 Carton Brew Animation Power List.

The 2025 Lilo & Stitch remake was a major success for Disney, earning over $1 billion globally and receiving praise for maintaining the emotional core of the original. Sanders’s involvement was widely seen as key to that achievement, both as the voice of Stitch and as a creative consultant. His return to write the sequel suggests that Disney is prioritizing narrative continuity and emotional authenticity as it continues to adapt its animated catalog into live action.

Sanders’s return underscores a larger recent trend: major studios turning back to original creators to ground their high-stakes remakes. The most obvious and recent example is Sanders’s Lilo & Stitch co-creator DeBlois, who helmed the live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon, which has made nearly $600 million at the box office this summer. The comparison holds up even better, given that Sanders and DeBlois co-directed the animated original from that franchise for DreamWorks in 2010.