During a 20th anniversary livestream event this morning, Square Enix confirmed Kingdom Hearts 4 is in active development. Fans have hoped for a new entry, but things seemed to wrap up with the third game, so a fourth installment was never a guarantee. The reveal trailer for Kingdom Hearts 4 has already gained a lot of attention on social media, with people dissecting the footage for potential hints about what will happen in the game.
As with any game in the series, Kingdom Hearts 4 will dive into the wonderful world of Disney to include cameos and locations from its many films and shows. Although numerous properties from Mulan to Toy Story have all made an appearance, there are still a few notable absences that left fans scratching their heads. With a fourth game confirmed, many are hoping these franchises will finally be included. While nothing is certain yet, there are a few reason these IPs may not have been used in the series but could appear now.
Kingdom Hearts - Wrapping Up The Original Storyline
There is something to be said for seeing a narrative to its conclusion before moving on to something new. The Kingdom Hearts series is no different, with 2019's Kingdom Hearts 3 being used to wrap up loose ends and tie together dangling plot threads that began in the original release. The Kingdom Hearts timeline is infamous for being packed with information and characters, which can be a lot for any one viewer to get a handle on.
Kingdom Hearts 3 had a lot of work in this regard, not only concluding the storylines from Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2, but countless spin-offs as well. With so much on the table to carefully balance, it wouldn't have been wise to include too many new Disney worlds in an already crowded adventure. Granted, films like Toy Story and Frozen did make their introduction here, but there were still a handful of others left out.
With the original plot of Kingdom Hearts finished, it's a clean slate for the developers to take Sora, Donald, and Goofy on new adventures to wondrous lands. This leaves room to introduce fresh faces into the fray that players haven't yet experienced in this franchise. This also gives these new series a chance to shine rather than being stuffed between all the other pre-existing fluff from prior games.
Kingdom Hearts - Untapped Disney Properties
Disney is always creating new content and exploring other avenues for how to expand its business. Over the past few decades, not only has the company created vibrant animated epics like Encanto and Zootopia, it has also acquired some of the biggest names in entertainment. Star Wars, arguably the biggest fictional universe of them all, has spawned a new film trilogy under Disney and numerous Disney+ television series. Similarly, the Marvel Cinematic Universe - home of popular blockbusters like Avengers: Endgame - is also under Disney's umbrella.
Leading up to the launch of Kingdom Hearts 3 in 2019, many fans pondered if a galaxy far, far away or Iron Man would show up, as Disney owned both of these properties. However, they may not have been included due to the immense scale and coordination taken to develop a project of this magnitude. Kingdom Hearts 3 was in development for several years, with its reveal coming in 2013, meaning many of these IPs may not have being considered at the time. It could have been too difficult to awkwardly squeeze them in during the middle of production.
Thankfully, there is hope for Kingdom Hearts 4 to include many faces that haven't popped up in the series yet, finally giving them their due. Square Enix will likely want to make this fourth entry stand out in ways that prior games haven't, and what better way to do that than using franchises which fans have been clamoring for over the past several years.
Kingdom Hearts 4 is currently in development.