As part of D23, Disney’s biennial convention about all things Disney, a Kingdom Hearts panel was announced. Now, we don’t normally get a wholly dedicated panel to Square Enix and Disney’s Action RPG. Kingdom Hearts fans normally have to fight for scraps for the media empire to even acknowledge its existence. But this year feels different. A whole panel for the series’ 25th anniversary, even if a year early, is a genuinely exciting time. And with Kingdom Hearts 4 seeming to begin its hype cycle after over four years of silence, it’s time to put on the Jaws Theme played with clown horns and get excited about what could be announced!
Now, this panel is about the 25 years of Kingdom Hearts, and anniversary panels aren’t a new thing for D23. Disney, like many other companies, loves to celebrate quinquennials. Yet with prominent voice actors like Haley Joel Osment, the voice of Sora, and David Gallagher, the voice of Riku, as well as the supposed Co-Director of Kingdom Hearts 4, Tai Yasue, in attendance, speculation about new tidbits of news about the long-awaited sequel is abuzz. And D23 isn’t a new place for Square to announce something new for the series either.
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Could a new PIXAR world be announced at the D23 Kingdom Hearts panel?
In 2017, we finally got the reveal that Toy Story would be a world in Kingdom Hearts 3. In 2018, at D23 Expo Japan, Monsters, Inc was announced as a world for the same game. Now, to cross off the list, I don’t think we’ll get the rumored (and heavily hinted) full reveal of the Star Wars world. That feels poised for announcement at next year’s Star Wars Celebration. But that isn’t to say a new world won’t be announced.
If the trend continues, a Pixar world is bound to be revealed at some point during the hour-long panel. Like maybe Brave, Coco, Wall-E, or even a full Ratatouille world. It is Pixar’s 40th anniversary, after all. With the hinted themes of learning from the past to improve the future, as well as Square and Tetsuya Nomura trying to make a cohesive narrative out of the different Disney worlds included in the previous games, my money’s on Brave.
Maybe announcements from previous years could feed into what may be announced. In 2017, we got the announcement at D23 about the opening of Toy Story Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. So announcing Toy Story as a world for Kingdom Hearts 3 was pretty fitting. That was in addition to the original release window of 2018. As for D23 Expo Japan in 2018, there wasn’t too much news pertaining to Monsters, Inc. at the time, but, we did get the reveal of the game’s theme song, “Don’t Think Twice,” by the quintessential singer of Kingdom Hearts’ theme songs, Utada Hikaru.
Here’s hoping for a new compilation release to fill in the story gaps from shuttered mobile games.
So, could this be the time we get a release window? Maybe 2028, a year after Square’s next big tentpole game, Final Fantasy VII Revelations, releases. But there is the possibility of something completely out of left field. Like a remake of Kingdom Hearts 1. Or even better, after following the leaks of the canceled mobile game, Missing Link, a new mini-collection akin to Kingdom Hearts 2.8 with the big story beats of Missing Link along with a mini intro to the sequel.
With Kingdom Hearts 4 already prominently using characters from both released (and now shut down) mobile games, Unchained X and Dark Road, as well as those from Missing Link, it could be good to have a new cohesive way to know who the heck some of the new faces are and how they fit into the overarching plot of the series. Especially when that overarching plot heavily involves major events in cutscenes only available on YouTube.
Regardless of what’s announced, the fact that Disney is gracing us with a panel wholly dedicated to Kingdom Hearts is exciting. Speculation is rampant about what tiny scrap Square will throw at everyone anxiously waiting for Kingdom Hearts 4. And while we speculate, we’ll keep on putting on that clown makeup while the Jaws theme, played with clown horns, gets louder. But if something does get announced, you’ll know by the loud screams and the incessant posting online moments after. Especially now that a livestream of the panel has been confirmed, too. Just don’t go dark mid-panel, Square!
