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News ► A Kingdom Hearts Disney Plus CGI series is rumored to be in the works



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Phoenix

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I.... have a bad feeling about this, lol. If it really is something Disney is treating as a big theatrical release, I have a hard time imagining it'd be something they'd see eye-to-eye with Nomura and CBU1 on. Kinda makes me wonder if this could be what last year's notorious “there was something that happened that determined the direction of the KH series" Nomura comment was about. Unless Nomura is sold on the Super Mario/Sonic-ification of the franchise for the sake of a family friendly blockbuster movie adaptation to draw in a fresh audience for KH4..... who knows.

This whole thing is really driving home how badly we are in need of something official KH news-wise, though. I've always been more of an optimist about the series and even I'm finding my confidence somewhat shaken of late about the franchise's future. I'm sure all that will disappear once I see a new KH4 trailer.

I've heard the argument that SE is keeping their cards close to their chest and only revealing things close to release. I believe it, I suppose. I'm not in marketing or advertising, but you can't tell me that this news drought isn't doing damage to the brand. YouTube channels and podcasts stop producing KH content one by one and either go dark or pivot. Say the game released late 2025, and we start getting real news early 2025. Is the market for this game even there anymore? We need something, anything.
 

Chaser

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Say the game released late 2025, and we start getting real news early 2025. Is the market for this game even there anymore? We need something, anything.
Star Wars is in. They're not worried about having lost a market when they've got those fans at the ready.
 

Chaser

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Star Wars fans are the most cynical and hard to please people on the planet. They will reject this even faster than the sequel trilogy.
You think there isn't a big part of that fanbase that won't show up day 1 for something with the Star Wars name attached to it?

And hell, if cynical and hard to please people were a problem, then everyone commenting in this thread wouldn't buy the game xD
 

Squood!

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I've heard the argument that SE is keeping their cards close to their chest and only revealing things close to release. I believe it, I suppose. I'm not in marketing or advertising, but you can't tell me that this news drought isn't doing damage to the brand. YouTube channels and podcasts stop producing KH content one by one and either go dark or pivot. Say the game released late 2025, and we start getting real news early 2025. Is the market for this game even there anymore? We need something, anything.
This is the same series where people acted as if KH3 was in development hell before it was even announced.

Two years is nothing even if it feels grueling.
 

Chaser

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Most Star Wars fans are already refusing to buy Star Wars: Outlaws because it has a female protagonist. Maybe referring to them as cynical was being kind because most of them are just hateful and mean spirited.
Is this an official survey from fans or is it from an echo chamber on Twitter where bots and fake accounts amplify sexist rhetoric? And not all Star Wars fans are like those blue checks on Twitter who find spewing alt-right ideology gets them a bigger pay cheque.

To me, Star Wars Outlaws looks great but I'd wait for sales numbers before using it as an example.

But I'm worried you've missed my original point. Any one who moved on from Kingdom Hearts because 3 was an ending to them should be offset by fans of the other IPs, such as Star Wars, buying into the game out of curiosity, of which there are a lot of these people who do this. I find it's like how some Marvel fans go to see a movie with a hero they might not be fond of because it crosses over with a hero they are fond of.

If I wasn't a Kingdom Hearts fan and I saw Tangled and Big Hero 6 were going to be in a video game in 2019, I'd have bought it just for that.
 

Chie

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Star Wars fans are the most cynical and hard to please people on the planet. They will reject this even faster than the sequel trilogy.
The entire sequel trilogy that's in the top 40 highest grossing movies of all time, you mean? If they "reject" it like they rejected that, this is gonna be the most successful video game in history!
 

Chaser

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The entire sequel trilogy that's in the top 40 highest grossing movies of all time, you mean? If they "reject" it like they rejected that, this is gonna be the most successful video game in history!
Not to mention that that trilogy is getting a sequel with Rey (<3).

But let's get back to the topic at hand, a hypothetical movie or TV show for Kingdom Hearts.
 

Liodin

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Guys, the only ones worried about KH are us fans. The rest of the world goes on with their lives and don't even remember that KH4 was announced.

What would really hurt the brand is to show things when they are not ready yet, just because we, the desperate fans, the ones who are going to be there no matter what, how and when, want more KH.



I see a lot of debate about what the movie should be about so people would be interested and watch it.

Let's analyze it:
  • You're a KH fan: You are a KH fan. You will watch the movie.
  • You're a "true" KH fan: Your favorite KH is KH2. Your favorite game is KH2. Anything other than KH2 is trash, including KH. You will watch the movie, just so you can tell everyone how trash it is.
  • You're not a KH fan: You watch a trailer with cool anime character, fighting alongside your favorite Disney characters, with an epic soundtrack and amazing CGI. You will watch the movie.
Answer:
The movie has to be canon, Nomura has to be involved and, above all, it has to be of the same quality as the rest of the Disney movies and video game adaptations. No-fans won't care if it's a retelling, sequel, prequel, spin-off or whatever.
 

Zackarix

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Not to mention that even Nomura himself has trouble thinking of how a legitimate KH movie would work/be handled.
To be fair, movies aren't exactly Nomura's forte. He's fantastic when directing games, but movies are an entirely different medium. That's why his name is associated with so many classic games, but Advent Children and Back Cover are um... well...

Disney has many of the top creative minds on the planet when it comes to adapting stories to the big screen. They have the talent to pull it off, but will that talent be working on the movie? And is that talent familiar enough with the franchise to know what's okay to cut and what's essential to keep? It could work out if the right people are working on it, but that's a pretty big if.

I suppose the real question is, is this movie in the works because someone with a vision is pushing it? Or is this movie in the works because Disney is after the crossover and video game movie money and it makes sense to adapt a successful IP they already own? We all know it's the latter, but hopefully it's also the former.
 

Squood!

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Guys, the only ones worried about KH are us fans. The rest of the world goes on with their lives and don't even remember that KH4 was announced.

What would really hurt the brand is to show things when they are not ready yet, just because we, the desperate fans, the ones who are going to be there no matter what, how and when, want more KH.
Yeah. That's just how gamin be, even when you're a real big franchise sometimes. Most people don't exactly focus on the current status of franchises.

Also I just realized I broke past 3000 posts a while ago yet haven't switched to silver lol
 

HakaishinChampa

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The movie has to be canon, Nomura has to be involved and, above all, it has to be of the same quality as the rest of the Disney movies and video game adaptations. No-fans won't care if it's a retelling, sequel, prequel, spin-off or whatever.
Even if it's a retelling, Nomura can be like "this is another worldline" and then have it be relevant in a future KH game :)

Whatever the case I think this is going to be the first movie I see in theaters since Deadpool 1 came out.
 

Launchpad

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it's pretty crazy how a while back I felt like KH was experiencing a definitive decline in global popularity-- not washed, or over, or anything like that, just not growing. I thought their only shot at a popularity boom with 4 was to pump budget into a kickass Vader fight and shill it everywhere in the lead up to release. I guess Disney wants to make sure that KH continues to grow, which is pretty cool!
 

PikaPal

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Does make me curious to see if they plan on doing something new to help expand the lore or if this might be an adaptation of the first game (but heavily truncated with various worlds removed).
 

Launchpad

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To be honest, I think the biggest draw here is getting Maleficent, Jafar, Hades, Hook, Ursula and Oogie together to plot, riff, and get mad at each other. That in and of itself is a stickier and more pliable premise than anything else they could come up with. That kind of thing will go viral in no time.

I'll forgive them for potentially gutting everything else unique to KH outside of Sora, the Keyblafe, and the heartless if it means we can get our campy shit talking villain league. Disney's rogues gallery has gone underused in any form of media for a while, and they're due for a refresh into the public consciousness.
 

Squood!

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To be honest, I think the biggest draw here is getting Maleficent, Jafar, Hades, Hook, Ursula and Oogie together to plot, riff, and get mad at each other. That in and of itself is a stickier and more pliable premise than anything else they could come up with. That kind of thing will go viral in no time.

I'll forgive them for potentially gutting everything else unique to KH outside of Sora, the Keyblafe, and the heartless if it means we can get our campy shit talking villain league. Disney's rogues gallery has gone underused in any form of media for a while, and they're due for a refresh into the public consciousness.
I mean in that case they might as well reboot House of Mouse and do House of Villains again
 

Launchpad

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I mean in that case they might as well reboot House of Mouse and do House of Villains again
For whatever reason they've got a weird thing about House of Mouse. It's not even available to stream. I didn't really care for it, thought the jokes were lame and the stories were unfunny and uninteresting, but I don't see why they had to go and bury it, lol.

And the reason to do this with KH as opposed to some kind of House of Mouse reboot is that video game movies are way in right now. They're probably overestimating the appeal of Kingdom Hearts vs Sonic or Mario, but the sudden emergence of a KH Movie has everything to do with that trend. A hit movie could drive game sales, which drives merch sales, which funds more movies and games, etcetera. A House of Mouse reboot is more of a closed loop, could be neat and go viral, but lacks the franchise-y synchronicity that Disney is so horny about right now.
 

Lonbilly

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a kh movie that uses its Disney IPs the way launchpad is saying would easily get people in those seats. whether the movie is good/has legs to maintain a box office afterward is up to the quality of the movie, but actually focusing on the disney side of things would be vastly more appealing to a mainstream audience. ESPECIALLY with the classic villains back.

the live action films have been more or less successful, but after remakes hollywood usually does requels. while kh is in no way a requel of anything disney, if you follow that formula and you bring back the old versions of disney heroes and villains that people know and love for the big screen, well… i can see why they’re probably pushing for kh to be the next cash cow.

the only thing i’m less certain they’ll commit to is the princesses of light. with how disney has gone out of its way in the last decade to “correct” how its handled its classic female protags, do we think they would do a movie where most of them are kidnapped and then just unconscious for most of the runtime? unless they spruce up the scene where they’re holding back the darkness at hollow bastion afterward, i’m curious to see what they might do there.
 

Soldier

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I like how everyone here is hotly debating whether or not Disney will greenlight a movie (after all, they or Nomura don't really like making merchandise of the franchise) when we already have three KH movies.

Well, to call them coherent movies is a bit of a stretch, but they're longer than an hour.
 

Antifa Lockhart

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I like how everyone here is hotly debating whether or not Disney will greenlight a movie (after all, they or Nomura don't really like making merchandise of the franchise) when we already have three KH movies.

Well, to call them coherent movies is a bit of a stretch, but they're longer than an hour.

Those KH movies are parts of game packages developed by SE, and you know full-well that a Disney-produced feature isn't the same thing as Square packing cutscenes and cinematics as new material from in-game assets. (Back Cover is a slightly different case, but it's also incredibly short and doesn't quite make it to an hour in length)

Moreover, Disney has no issue merchandising Kingdom Hearts -- they just can't. One of the old staff members will have to corroborate this, but SE has a larger merchandise stake in the series and Disney doesn't push for much outside of what Square makes because, again, they don't want to piss off Nomura. These projects, including Seth Kearsley's pilot, don't go very far because Nomura's approval or lack-there-of stops them dead in their tracks.

We know this happened with the animates series, we know this is why it took so long for Sora to get into Smash, and we have good reason to believe that Nomura shut down a young adult novel series about KH a few years ago. I wasn't kidding or being hyperbolic, Disney doesn't want to go against Tetsuya Nomura's wishes, even though they own the IP outright.
 
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