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The live-action adaptation of Lilo & Stitch has been officially released in theaters worldwide.
Fans were disappointed to discover one important figure was absent. They have questioned the decision to remove the original villain, Captain Gantu, from the revised version of the film.
Director Dean Fleischer Camp has now addressed the matter, claiming that it was not a mistake but rather a deliberate choice.
According to Camp, he believed it would be wonderful to give another character in the film the opportunity to be a villain, so he wanted 'Jumba' to get that chance.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he stated, "One of the things I loved about the original is that up until Gantu arrives, there is no villain who is just a villain,"
Dean stated, "Gantu appears, and the movie becomes more traditional. I saw a good potential for [Jumba] to become the villain in the third act."
The 41-year-old filmmaker decided that in order to produce something authentic, it was necessary to remove the emotional and profound connection established in the 2002 picture.
"To make room for all the emotional stuff and the deepening that we accomplished, you had to get rid of things. And so Gantu was a casualty of that, but one in which I felt quite secure from a storytelling standpoint," he continued.
Maia Kealoha, Sydney Agudong, Zach Galifianakis, and others star in Lilo and Stitch 2025.
