While everyone waits for Kingdom Hearts 4 to finally release in 2027, Disney has announced a new animated Kingdom Hearts series. While exciting for fans of the series, this upcoming anime isn’t far from the only plan Disney has for the series.
Speaking to Japanese outlet 4Gamer during the recent D23 celebrations, Disney’s director of games Nana Gadd explained that the company has big plans for the future of Kingdom Hearts.
Gadd explained that Disney’s game division is “working hard to expand various touchpoints through media development”. Kingdom Hearts itself has expanded into multimedia in the past with manga adaptations and spin-off games, but Disney wants to keep expanding.
“It’s been 25 years since Kingdom Hearts [debuted], but there’s still a lot of things I want to do,” Gadd continued. They teased that the release of the upcoming animation is “truly just the first step” of Disney’s plans to continue expanding the RPG series into new mediums and audiences.
Gadd explained that continuing to explore new worlds and new ways to bring Kingdom Hearts to new audiences is very important for Disney. However, the main focus right now is on continuing development of Kingdom Hearts 4 and making sure the game is ready for launch in the second half of 2027.
The director also explained that Disney sees Kingdom Hearts as a truly valuable brand as it brings the company’s IPs to new audiences. “In terms of partnerships, what’s really special about Kingdom Hearts that that, while using our IP, it perfectly combines with Mr. Nomura’s very attractive storytelling… I think it’s quite unparalleled as a work that does this.”
Gadd added that they “really want to cherish” the continuation of Kingdom Hearts as an important series for Disney. As Disney continues to expand its gaming output, especially on the Marvel side, Gadd reiterated that continued expansion of Kingdom Hearts is a major focus for the company’s future output both in gaming and outside of it.
As for Kingdom Hearts 4, we still don’t know too much about the game. Right now, we’re aware that the game features Coco as a playable world alongside the realistic city of Quadratum. The game also appears to feature Olympus from Hercules in some form.
KH4 releases on Xbox, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC in Late 2027. For more from the series, read about the unreleased American-made spin-off game that was cancelled by Disney.
