The Kingdom Hearts anime series is officially coming to Disney+, and as fans, we have approximately 47 questions, 12 concerns and one very important request: please don’t hurt us.
There are some video game announcements that make you immediately scream with excitement. And then there are the ones that make you scream with excitement and then immediately remember every video game adaptation that didn't quite work.
So, when Disney announced that Kingdom Hearts is officially being developed as an original television series for Disney+, our first reaction was obviously:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
Our second was:
Oh no.
Because this is Kingdom Hearts we're talking about.
For more than two decades, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald, Goofy and a frankly unreasonable number of Disney characters have occupied a very specific corner of our brains. The series has somehow managed to combine Disney, Final Fantasy, anime aesthetics, original characters, talking ducks, existential questions about the nature of the heart and a plot that can require a literal corkboard and red string to explain.
And somehow, it works. So yes, we're excited. We're also mildly terrified.
A Kingdom Hearts anime is actually happening
Announced at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, Kingdom Hearts (working title) has been greenlit as an original anime series for Disney+.
The series is being developed in partnership with Kingdom Hearts creator Tetsuya Nomura and the creative team at SQUARE ENIX, which is probably the single most reassuring part of this entire announcement.
Rather than simply recreating one of the existing games, Disney says the series will feature a brand-new story that expands the Kingdom Hearts universe while celebrating the characters fans have spent years with.
According to Disney, the series will reimagine the iconic adventure in a new format, giving audiences another way to experience the world of Kingdom Hearts.
And honestly? We're listening.
Please don't mess this up
Look, we know that sounds dramatic.
But Kingdom Hearts isn't exactly a straightforward franchise to adapt.
The original game launched on PlayStation 2 in March 2002, beginning a series that has since grown across multiple games, platforms, spin-offs and approximately seven billion emotional plot twists.
Okay, maybe not seven billion.
But enough that explaining the Kingdom Hearts timeline to someone who has never played the games can feel like you're defending a PhD thesis.
At its heart, pun absolutely intended, Kingdom Hearts is a story about friendship, light, darkness and the connections between people.
It's also about giant keys, magical worlds, mysterious hooded figures, Nobodies, Heartless, Organisation XIII, time travel and Donald Duck screaming at you while definitely not healing you when he should be.
That's a difficult cocktail to replicate.
And that's exactly why we're both intrigued and nervous about this adaptation.
The biggest green flag here is Tetsuya Nomura's involvement.
Disney has confirmed that the series is being developed alongside Nomura and the creative team at SQUARE ENIX, meaning this isn't simply a studio taking the Kingdom Hearts name and doing whatever it wants with it.
That's important.
Because if we're going to hand over one of gaming's most beloved and occasionally incomprehensible universes to television, we'd like someone in the room who understands why fans care about it in the first place.
Disney also describes the series as a way to expand the universe rather than simply retell the games.
That could be incredibly exciting.
Kingdom Hearts has always had a massive universe sitting behind its central story, and an anime series could potentially explore characters, worlds and moments that the games haven't had the time or space to fully investigate.
Kingdom Hearts Has a Lot to Live Up To
The franchise has shipped more than 39 million units worldwide, making Kingdom Hearts one of the biggest video game series to emerge from the collaboration between Disney and SQUARE ENIX. But those numbers only tell part of the story. For many fans, Kingdom Hearts isn't simply a game series they enjoyed; it's something they grew up with. Some of us met Sora on the PlayStation 2, some discovered the series through Kingdom Hearts II, and others have spent years trying to explain the plot of Dream Drop Distance to people who absolutely did not ask.
That's what makes adapting Kingdom Hearts such an interesting challenge. These aren't characters being introduced to us for the first time. Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald and Goofy have been part of people's lives for more than 20 years, and the worlds they've inhabited have become deeply tied to people's own memories of gaming. The series has built an incredibly specific identity around friendship, adventure, Disney nostalgia and an increasingly complicated battle between light and darkness. It's a strange combination that shouldn't work nearly as well as it does, which means a new adaptation can't simply borrow the characters and aesthetic. It needs to understand what makes Kingdom Hearts feel like Kingdom Hearts.
So... What Do We Actually Know?
For now, Disney is keeping the details fairly close to its chest. We know the series will be an original anime series for Disney+, rather than a straightforward retelling of one of the existing games, and that it will feature a brand-new story designed to expand the Kingdom Hearts universe. We also know that Tetsuya Nomura and the creative team at SQUARE ENIX are involved, which is probably the biggest piece of information fans could have hoped for at this stage.
What we don't know is almost as important. There is currently no confirmed release date, voice cast, episode count or detailed plot synopsis, and we don't yet know exactly how this new story will connect to the games we already know. Considering how much lore Kingdom Hearts has accumulated over the years, that's a lot of very important questions still waiting for answers. Honestly, we're okay with that. We'd rather Disney take its time than rush something that has this much emotional baggage attached to it.
We're Excited. We're Also Nervous.
Despite the nerves, there is a lot to be excited about. An anime series could give the Kingdom Hearts universe an opportunity to breathe in a way that the games haven't always been able to. There are countless characters, worlds and stories that could be explored, and introducing the franchise to a new generation through an animated series could be a genuinely exciting way to expand its audience.
The involvement of Nomura and SQUARE ENIX also gives us some reason to be cautiously optimistic. If the series can capture the strange magic that made Kingdom Hearts so beloved in the first place — the friendships, the ridiculous Disney crossover moments, the beautiful worlds and, yes, the occasionally incomprehensible plot — then there is every possibility that this could be something special.
But we're still going to be nervous. Because we've seen enough video game adaptations to know that a beloved game doesn't automatically make a great television series. Kingdom Hearts has spent more than two decades building a world that fans genuinely care about, and that's a pretty enormous pair of shoes for any adaptation to fill.
So, Disney, if you're reading this: please remember that we love these characters. We're trusting you with our hearts, and considering this is Kingdom Hearts, you should probably know by now that that's a pretty big deal.
The Kingdom Hearts series is currently in development for Disney+. A release date and further details have not yet been announced.
