The Real Reason Captain Gantu Didn't Appear In Disney's Live-Action Lilo & Stitch Movie

Disney's latest live-action remake of one of its much-loved animated films, "Lilo & Stitch," is an adorable, heartfelt, and aggressively safe reimagining of the 2002 original. The adventures of Experiment 626 (who's still voiced by Chris Sanders) and Lilo Pelekai (Maia Kealoha) are arguably a better fit for the live-action treatment than most Disney classics. However, while the 2025 movie avoids touching some of the original movie's hard-hitting messages, it also isn't afraid to make big changes to certain characters when need be.

That said, perhaps the biggest difference between the two versions of "Lilo & Stitch" isn't a story tweak or a character change as much as it is an outright omission. Many viewers were no doubt surprised to find out that the 2025 movie chooses to cut the original film's big bad, Captain Gantu (Kevin Michael Richardson), altogether. Stripping a classic movie of its main antagonist is a bold narrative choice, and the remake's director, Dean Fleischer Camp, has now explained why said choice was made. As he told Cinema Blend, Gantu simply didn't gel with the live-action version of the story:

"Gantu was one of those things that just didn't work so well in live-action. We explored it a bit, but ultimately we had to make the decision. And also I do stand by the decision 'cause I feel like a lot of the things that in trying to ground these characters more and tell a story with a little more emotional depth, especially between the sisters, I feel like you have to free up real estate to allow that breathing room to do those things."

As you'll notice, the director's answer to the Gantu question is twofold. First, he notes that the villain wouldn't have worked all that well in a live-action setting, hinting at potential VFX issues that would have made Gantu stand out even among the movie's array of aliens ... and not necessarily in a good way. However, the rest of his answer is all about the film's narrative, which actually makes sense when you consider what kind of antagonist Gantu is.

In the 2002 movie, the shark-like Gantu is an ominous presence and a ruthless officer of the Galactic Federation. However, he's not a villain in the traditional sense of the word. Cruel and nasty though he may be, he's genuinely on a mission to catch an escaped scientific experiment that, for all he knows, can and absolutely will cause untold destruction should he fail.

Though no one will go out of their way to call Gantu a nice guy, this still makes him a fairly complex antagonist — one who could've almost been seen as heroic if he wasn't so callous when it comes to collateral damage. In other words, the character is a lot, and bringing a faithfully-adapted version of the musclebound sci-fi soldier to a live-action setting might very well have taken a lot of attention from the more grounded parts of the story Dean Fleischer Camp and the others wanted to focus on. As such, Zach Galifianakis' twisted scientist character Jumba Jookiba functions as a far more traditional main villain in the 2025 movie, and Gantu will have to wait in the wings ... well, at least until Disney gets around to remaking "Stitch! The Movie."

"Lilo & Stitch" is currently playing in theaters.