'Lilo & Stitch' director finally addresses controversy involving 'Captain Gantu'

Lilo & Stitch live action remake has been officially released in cinemas across the world.

Fans were left disappointed to see one major character was missing. They have been questioning the removal of the original villain, Captain Gantu from the new version of the film.

Director Dean Fleischer Camp has finally addressed the controversy while maintaining that it was not a mistake rather it was a conscious choice.

As per Camp, he thought it would be nice to give the opportunity of being a villain to some other character of the movie, and so he wanted to 'Jumba' to have that chance.

While talking to Entertainment Weekly, he said, “One of the things I loved about the original is that up until Gantu arrives, there is no villain that is just a villain,”

Dean explained, “Gantu arrives and it turns into a more conventional movie. I thought there was a nice opportunity here for [Jumba] to turn and become the villain in the third act.”

The 41-year-old filmmaker believed that in order to create something real, it was important to get rid of the emotional and deep connection already created in the 2002 film.

“To create real estate for all that emotional stuff and the deepening that we did, you have to get rid of stuff. And so Gantu was a casualty of that, but one that I felt pretty confident about from a storytelling perspective”, he added.

Lilo & Stitch 2025 features Maia Kealoha, Sydney Agudong, Zach Galifianakis and others.