Amaar Zarrieff 
With the plethora of upcoming live-action Disney remake announcements such as The Little Mermaid (2023), Snow White (2024), and rumors of a The Princess and the Frog remake, there were bound to be talks of a live-action remake of the childhood classic: Lilo & Stitch. Although many fans were excited to hear the news of a movie remake, other fans of the franchise had reservations about the potential casting of the movie. Whitewashing is a very common tactic in Hollywood used to hide or even erase the heritage of certain characters. With a movie as culturally significant to Hawaiian culture as Lilo & Stitch, the actors, and actresses playing the main characters should respect what was reflected in the animated movie (which were native indigenous Hawaiian people). As many fans had speculated, the majority of the casting was not up to par with the animated characters.
One of the only castings that fans agreed with was the casting of native Hawaiian Maia Kealoha as Lilo. How could anyone be upset at someone so adorable?
Issues began when the casting for Lilo’s older sister, Nani, came out to the public. Actress Sydney Adudong was cast as Nani. Although Adudong is a native Hawaiian, she looks nothing like the animated version of Nani. Fans across the internet were the first ones to point out that Adudong is several shades lighter than Nani in the animated movie. They even went as far as demanding Disney to recast Nani with a darker-skinned Hawaiian actress.
Disney’s casting decisions only got worse from there. Another lighter-skinned Hawaiian actor Kahiau Machado was cast as Nani’s love interest David. The blowback from David’s casting was widespread and furious. Fans were so furious that they dug into Machado’s past to find racist remarks he made in 2018, forcing Disney to recast the role of David to Kaipot Dudoit (a much better casting in my opinion).
In an era where social media has such a huge impact on corporate decisions, fans are now holding casting directors accountable for their poor decisions. For now, Hollywood is listening. Well, Sort of. Stay tuned to see if more casting changes are made.
By Amaar Zarrieff, Freshman, Howard University
Instagram: amaar.fz
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