Almost 25 Years Later, Disney Is Finally Starting To Take Kingdom Hearts Seriously

For over two decades, Kingdom Hearts has held a somewhat bizarre place within Disney. Without a doubt, it's one of the most beloved video game collaborations, bringing the worlds and characters of beloved Disney movies together with Square Enix characters from Final Fantasy and The World Ends With You. However, the franchise has struggled to receive what feels like an appropriate amount of attention from Disney despite its huge potential (though that may soon be changing).

As seen at Disney's recent D23 Ultimate Fan Event, a surprising number of Kingdom Hearts announcements, reveals, and surprise guests were featured over the three-day expo. On the one hand, this seems to show that Disney is finally paying more corporate attention to Kingdom Hearts than ever before, having identified the series as one of its billion-dollar franchises in an announcement just before D23. However, there's also evidence they still have a ways to go.

With Kingdom Hearts approaching its 25th anniversary next year and new releases on the way, it feels as though the franchise is entering a new era that could finally turn it into the major multimedia property it's always had the potential to become.

D23 Featured Several Kingdom Hearts Reveals Ahead Of Its 25th Anniversary

Across the board, D23's Kingdom Hearts "Deep Dive" panel delivered a truly impressive collection of announcements, major reveals, and surprise guests. Hosted by Khleo Thomas, the presentation began with Disney and Pixar Games Director of Product Development Nana Gadd, Kingdom Hearts IV co-director Tai Yasue, and none other than series creator Tetsuya Nomura himself.

Right off the bat, the D23 panel offered new details about the upcoming Kingdom Hearts IV, including an expanded look at the game's original world of Quadratum, teasing new traversal gameplay due to the city's impressive size. Additionally, an extended four-minute trailer was released, a longer version of the trailer was released the night prior during D23's Entertainment Showcase. In the trailer, even more of the new Disney world inspired by Pixar's Coco was revealed, and the exciting reveal that King Mickey, Donald, and Goofy would all be playable characters to some degree in the upcoming game.

Riku and Kairi were also teased in the trailer, while the "Deep Dive" panel confirmed Maleficent's key role in Kingdom Hearts IV alongside Hades. There will also reportedly be a DisneyTown world inspired by Disney Parks. Additionally, Nomura also confirmed that planning has already begun for the franchise's 30th anniversary.

Most importantly, Kingdom Hearts IV was guaranteed to arrive in late 2027, no more delays or long periods of radio silence. The panel then ended with Sora and Riku's voice actors Haley Joel Osment and David Gallagher taking the stage to share memories from the previous games. They also performed the ending of Kingdom Hearts II live for the panel audience, reading lines in the same room together for the very first time.

Last but certainly not least, Friday night's Entertainment Showcase revealed that a brand-new Kingdom Hearts anime is officially in development for Disney+. All things considered, that's a heck of a lot of Kingdom Hearts news in one weekend, especially considering how long fans have gone before without any significant news or updates.

Disney Still Needs To Realize How Big Kingdom Hearts Actually Is

As exciting as all of those announcements were, the D23 Expo also highlighted what felt like a pretty big disconnect between Kingdom Hearts' popularity and the attention Disney gives it. Even though the "Deep Dive" panel was easily one of the most anticipated and hyped panels of the weekend, it was ultimately held in one of the Anaheim Convention Center's smallest meeting rooms. As such, the unfortunate result was a massively long standby line filled with fans hoping to get inside (many of whom no doubt left disappointed).

Having witnessed the crowds and long lines of dedicated fans personally, the size of the room didn't exactly convey that Disney supposedly now views Kingdom Hearts as one of its valuable billion-dollar franchises.

To be fair, Disney did take exciting steps by showcasing the Coco-focused Kingdom Hearts IV trailer at the Friday night Entertainment Showcase at the Honda Center, as well as the upcoming anime series announcement. Still, the Deep Dive situation absolutely suggests that Disney may not fully understand the true scale of the Kingdom Hearts fandom. After all, we're talking about a multi-generational global fanbase that's been built and has continued to grow for nearly the last 25 years.

It's baffling that Disney has taken this long to get as far as it has, as there's plenty more runway it could and should go.

Kingdom Hearts Has The Potential To Become A Top-Tier Disney Franchise

Ultimately, it feels like The Kingdom Hearts anime could be the most important development when it comes to meaningfully elevating the franchise, even beyond the highly anticipated release of Kingdom Hearts IV. After all, there are plenty of people who love Disney but have never played Kingdom Hearts, or aren't big gamers to begin with. Likewise, the games' sprawling mythology and lore are fairly complex and potentially quite intimidating (even to current fans of the franchise).

This is why an animated series is so exciting, offering an entirely new entry point to the franchise via an arguably more accessible medium. If Disney can use this anime to tell an easier-to-grasp Kingdom Hearts story while still retaining the franchise's distinctive identity, it's gonna be gold. It could fundamentally change how the franchise is viewed by the mainstream if only Disney starts capitalizing on the franchise (in all the ways it should have from the start).

If we're being real here: Disney has spent far too long squandering the fact that they have access to what is essentially a Disney Cinematic Universe, connecting classic Disney animated movies, Pixar, more modern Disney films, and even live-action Disney movies (not to mention Square Enix's characters who come with their own fanbase).

There's so much potential that's been slept on for nearly 25 years. Hopefully, we're starting to see Disney finally catching on to what they actually have on their hands, and there's already evidence that Disney is beginning to understand that. The company announcing the anime, confirming a late-2027 release window for Kingdom Hearts IV, teasing major new Disney worlds, and teasing the franchise's 30th anniversary this far in advance all represent meaningful changes that are hopefully just the beginning going forward.

Kingdom Hearts IV is set to release in late 2027 from Square Enix and Disney.

Systems

ESRB e

Developer(s) Square Enix

Publisher(s) Square Enix

Engine Unreal Engine 5

Multiplayer Online Multiplayer