The cameras are rolling on Disney’s Lilo & Stitch 2 in Hawaii, and the newest glimpse from the set belongs to Angel. A short video filmed by a bystander in Waikiki and shared by Reel News Hawaii shows the stand-ins for Stitch and Angel standing side by side on a sidewalk while the crew sets up around them, and it spread quickly across social media on Friday.
The two figures in the video are stand-in puppets, not the finished characters. The production uses them on location for lighting and reference, and so the actors have something real in front of them to play against. Stitch and Angel will both be created with CGI by Industrial Light & Magic in the finished film, but the pink stand-in follows Angel’s animated design closely, which makes this the clearest look yet at how she is expected to appear on screen.
Angel is Experiment 624, the pink experiment created by Dr. Jumba Jookiba and introduced as Stitch’s love interest in Lilo & Stitch: The Series, where Tara Strong voiced her. Disney announced her live-action debut at its D23 event in August, when she interrupted a video message from Stitch in a short teaser built around her antennae. Disney has not yet announced who will voice Angel in the film.
Filming on the sequel began October 14 on Oahu, following a traditional Hawaiian blessing ceremony at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu attended by Maia Kealoha, who plays Lilo, Sydney Agudong, who plays Nani, Amy Hill, who plays Tutu, and Governor Josh Green. Much of the shoot has centered on the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki, and this is not the first peek from the set. Photos from October 19 caught Stitch wearing a small fishing hat as he sat beside Angel among a cluster of fishing poles, and another short clip showed Stitch hauling a hotel luggage cart piled high with bags.
Disney announced the sequel on June 26, Stitch’s own 626 Day, while the first live-action Lilo & Stitch was still in theaters on its way to more than $1 billion worldwide. Chris Sanders, who co-created the 2002 animated film and has voiced Stitch ever since, is writing and directing the sequel, which tells a brand-new story rather than adapting any of the animated follow-ups. Jonathan Eirich produces, with Ryan Halprin as executive producer. Lilo & Stitch 2 arrives in theaters May 26, 2028, at the start of Memorial Day weekend.