Over two decades ago, Square Enix’s Tetsuya Nomura and Shinji Hashimoto created Kingdom Hearts, a collaboration between the acclaimed Final Fantasy developer and The Walt Disney Company. Since the first game’s release in 2002, the action role-playing game (RPG) has grown into a 13-game, multi-platform series, shipping more than 36 million copies worldwide. Like any highly profitable property, Kingdom Hearts boasts every tie-in imaginable, from collectible figurines to a best-selling manga series. However, one glaringly obvious tie-in eludes the Disney-Square Enix crossover: a Kingdom Hearts TV show (or movie).
But that doesn’t mean Disney hasn’t tried to get a Kingdom Hearts TV series off the ground. At the height of the first game’s popularity — and while every PlayStation 2 gamer was clamoring for Kingdom Hearts 2 — Seth Kearsley, the director of the Adam Sandler-starring animated hit Eight Crazy Nights (2002), connected with Disney about making a Kingdom Hearts TV pilot. While the series ultimately didn’t pan out, Kingdom Hearts fans are still wondering why adapting the game wasn’t so simple and clean.
Why Is Kingdom Hearts Connected To Disney?
A decade before the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) debuted The Avengers (2012), Square Enix and Disney brought about the then-greatest crossover of all time: Kingdom Hearts. Set in an original fictional universe, the series takes inspiration from a wealth of Disney properties, ranging from The Little Mermaid (1989) to Frozen (2013) as well as Square Enix’s notable IP, namely the long-running Final Fantasy series and games like The World Ends With You and Einhänder.
As the story goes, the initial idea for Kingdom Hearts came out of a discussion between Final Fantasy veterans Shinji Hashimoto and Hironobu Sakaguchi. The two wanted to make a game with the freedom of the then-groundbreaking Super Mario 64 (1996), but felt that only Mickey Mouse and Disney’s wealth of other recognizable characters could rival Mario’s global popularity. Square Enix’s longtime game designer Tetsuya Nomura asked to lead the project, and, after a chance meeting between Hashimoto and a Disney exec, the collaboration began.
Nomura was set on developing a story that centered on an original character — not one pre-established in Disney media — and received support from Disney’s then-president Bob Iger. While Disney has a reputation for being exceedingly protective of their characters, Iger let Nomura and his team have creative freedom over which franchises they pulled from. All of this allowed Nomura to focus on creating original characters, including the game’s protagonist, Sora.
Is Sora Part of Disney Canon?
In the first Kingdom Hearts, Sora lives on the too-aptly named Destiny Islands with his pals Riku and Kairi. Eager to embark on an adventure, the friends build a raft, but before they can set sail, shadowy entities known as Heartless appear. In the ensuing chaos, Sora ends up with a Keyblade — the magical, giant keys that serve as sword stand-ins — and the trio is separated, siloed onto the fragmented worlds that make up the Kingdom Hearts universe.
King Mickey, meanwhile, leaves his home world to fend off the growing number of Heartless, and tasks Donald and Goofy with finding the “key” that will protect all the worlds from the growing darkness. Donald and Goofy end up running into Sora, and the new trio travel around to various worlds in search of Mickey, Kairi, and Riku.
Along the way, Sora uses his Keyblade to seal the various worlds’ “Keyholes” — when sealed, a world’s “heart” can’t be consumed by Heartless. (In Kingdom Hearts speak, hearts are more akin to souls.) And then there’s Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent, a big bad intent on seeking out the seven Princesses of Heart who, together, can unlock a keyhole that leads to the titular Kingdom Hearts — a source of knowledge, power, and all the worlds’ hearts. To make matters more complicated, Maleficent recruits Riku into her ranks.
Without spoiling too much about how the first Kingdom Hearts plays out, it’s important to know that a mysterious figure named Ansem has been manipulating Maleficent this whole time. Ultimately, the plan to obtain Kingdom Hearts is Ansem’s whole scheme, though, after the first game, things get notoriously (and needlessly) complicated.
So, does all of this lore mean that Sora Disney canon? For decades, Sora (and the other characters created for Kingdom Hearts) existed in a kind of liminal space. They weren’t openly Disney canon, but they also weren’t not Disney canon. The 2022 animated flick Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers changed all of that, though.
In the film, iconic animated characters start to disappear, and it’s up to Chip and Dale to find them. In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sequence, the titular duo are examining a wall of evidence. Among the items? Mickey’s glove, Jiminy Cricket’s hat, and Sora’s Keyblade. So, while there isn’t a full-on Sora appearance — or even a proper cameo — this does mark the first time Disney has referenced Kingdom Hearts in a canon show or movie.
Is There a Kingdom Hearts TV Show?
Back in 2003, Seth Kearsley took a look at the script for Disney’s original Kingdom Hearts series pilot and decided it needed some work. A fan of the original game, Kearsley felt the script was essentially an episode of Aladdin, with Sora and co. being dropped down to mere side characters. In a recent interview with Inverse, Kearsley revealed that he worked on the script, storyboards, and animatics for the pilot from February to September 2003.
When the Kingdom Hearts TV show didn’t go anywhere, Kearsley said it felt like a “summer romance that disappeared with fall.” Reportedly, Disney didn’t want to move forward with the project and step on Square’s toes, though Kearsley admits the story of Kingdom Hearts was a hard sell to Disney execs in pilot form.
A few years ago, Kearsley revealed a storyboard from the project, but, until recently, the full 11-minute animatic has remained a mystery to fans for two decades. In October 2022, Kearsley posted the unproduced pilot to YouTube, wracking up hundreds of thousands of views in 24 hours. While the rough cut of the pilot is no longer lost to time, there still hasn’t been a proper, produced Kingdom Hearts TV show.
Are There Any Kingdom Hearts Movies?
No, there aren’t any official Kingdom Hearts movies. For now, the best way to experience the story — and all its many, many complications — is to play the games (or read Shiro Amano’s manga). Not a gamer? Longtime Kingdom Hearts fans have your back. If you’re looking to catch up on the major story beats involving Sora, Master Xehanort, Organization XIII, and more, check out any number of YouTube compilation videos that edit together the in-game cinematics into a semi-cohesive story.
Is Kingdom Hearts Coming To Disney Plus?
Since 2020, there have been rumors swirling around entertainment websites and Twitter of a Disney Plus Kingdom Hearts show being in the works. Allegedly, Disney passed the animation duties on to Square Enix, and it has been rumored that the video game developer created a pilot episode using the Unreal Engine.
Although these Disney Plus rumors cropped back up in May 2022, neither Disney nor Square Enix have made any official announcements about a Kingdom Hearts show or movie. That said, fans of the video game series probably shouldn’t bet too much Munny on a Disney Plus show coming to fruition.