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

[Alpha Baymax]

Honestly? I doubt it even really existed at all. Just another fake rumor.

Seriously, if it was actually a real thing, wouldn't some leaker have some info on it no matter how small by now?

Like, we can somehow have a big giant flood of WandaVision leaks right down to

Spoiler Show

Quicksilver being leaked a whole year before the show aired

but nothing on an animated adaptation of a video game?

If it is real, maybe KK's right and it did get lost under a desk or shelved.

Marvel and Star Wars have influencers dedicated to leaking their upcoming projects so it's no surprise that we hear rumblings about what they're up to before it gets officially confirmed. The same can't really be said for Disney-proper projects especially their animated projects.

Maybe it was shelved due to creative differences? who knows, but Disney clearly has an invigorated interest in Kingdom Hearts after the success of Kingdom Hearts III.

 

[KeybladePenguin]

Marvel and Star Wars have influencers dedicated to leaking their upcoming projects so it's no surprise that we hear rumblings about what they're up to before it gets officially confirmed. The same can't really be said for Disney-proper projects especially their animated projects.

Maybe it was shelved due to creative differences? who knows, but Disney clearly has an invigorated interest in Kingdom Hearts after the success of Kingdom Hearts III.

That worries me personally. Square needs complete creative control in order to keep things running smooth.

 

[KingdomKurdistan]

Its going to sound weird but I trust Nomura more then I trust Disney. And my beef with Disney is that I have watched them on a slow steady decline from their glory days for years and I feel like they need to seriously take a restock of their priorities regarding making good cartoons and animated movies. But thats just me. That said I personally like Nomura's crazy...except the Time Ghosts. I hated the Time Ghosts that was just pure stupid in my opinion. But eh...

There may have been two decades of decline and stagnation from the 90s onwards but the last ten years have seen Disney on the up. And it seems the momentum is only growing.

• Disney would never have let Rian Johnson make The Last Jedi 20 years ago. It was like watching a $200m arthouse film
• The astonishing boldness of WandaVision? Forget it
• Cinematic royalty Barry Jenkins is directing Lion King! And he was partly persuaded to do so because Chloe Zhao (!) was being given so much freedom on Eternals, another big-budget Disney flick
• Pixar is veering further and further into Terrence Malickesque abstract art territory, seemingly without any complaint from Disney
• Recent corporate reshuffles have been decisively in the favour of creatives over pencil-pushing executives
• Yet even the executives have been issuing statements reaffirming the defense of creative integrity
• They've issued a mea culpa for games based on Disney assets and a call for a lighter touch when it comes to creative freedom in these games

That worries me personally. Square needs complete creative control in order to keep things running smooth.

Well then we have irreconcilable views on the subject. I don't want Square Enix or Nomura anywhere near this show barring a consulting role to stop those making it from doing anything canonbreaking. Let Nomura paint the story in broad strokes. Then get others to fill in between the lines. My only issue was Disney itself (rather than subsidiaries) was slower to up its quality but even that has changed over the last couple of years with their choices of behind-the-camera talent for upcoming titles.

 

[KeybladePenguin]

There may have been two decades of decline and stagnation from the 90s onwards but the last ten years have seen Disney on the up. And it seems the momentum is only growing.

• Disney would never have let Rian Johnson make The Last Jedi 20 years ago. It was like watching a $200m arthouse film
• The astonishing boldness of WandaVision? Forget it
• Cinematic royalty Barry Jenkins is directing Lion King!
• Pixar is veering further and further into Terrence Malickesque abstract art territory, seemingly without any complaint from Disney
• Recent corporate reshuffles have been decisively in the favour of creatives over pencil-pushing executives
• Yet even the executives have been issuing statements reaffirming the defense of creative integrity
• They've issued a mea culpa for games based on Disney assets and a call for a lighter touch when it comes to creative freedom in these games

Well then we have irreconcilable views on the subject. I don't want Square Enix or Nomura anywhere near this show barring a consulting role to stop those making it from doing anything canonbreaking. Let Nomura paint the story in broad strokes. Then get others to fill in between the lines.

Something tells me we have an agree to disagree impass. Which is fine. I'm not gonna go insane over it. I personally just don't trust them.

 

[KingdomKurdistan]

Something tells me we have an agree to disagree impass. Which is fine. I'm not gonna go insane over it. I personally just don't trust them.

I love your display pic, though.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

This is kinda getting me scared that Nomura is going to turn out to be one of those arrogant creative types who refuses to let anyone else have any say or influence in the direction of the series.

I hate to tell you this but he is/was exactly that type lol. He’s changed a bit over the years and seems more reclusive than arrogant, but he’d been known for being...diva-like and...controlling is too heavy a term...

Spoiler Show

I’d tell you this story about a sandwich, Nomura, and Yasue but I’ve never been able to get anybody but one person to verify it so I’m sure it’s just a half truth twisted by the company rumor mill.

I WILL tell you about a situation that I can discuss because I was involved and I didn’t have any NDA to sign. Our site did an interview with Seth Kearsley, one of the guys who had been tapped to work on a KH animated pilot back in the early 2000s. Disney had a number of pilots in development at that time, so he wasn’t the only one but I think his was the most advanced of them.

Anyways, we did this interview then we get a message from a Japanese news hound who has ties to SE and they send this very long message about how Nomura is mad and called everything Seth said a lie and it was just insane. Essentially he wanted the interview taken down, but we just figured there was something getting lost in translation so we explained that we could verify the existence of the pilot and that our interview was just us preserving a piece of KH history. We didn’t get any threats after that so it all worked out, but man...Nomura was not happy.

Seth had also gone to Disney not long after that to see if he could pitch an idea again for it and they immediately told him no even though they had seemed very open to it before as they had agreed to the meeting about it and he sensed it something had happened lol

I do think his situation with XV pissed him off while also depressing him, but it also humbled him to a degree. He’s been less hand-on and open to suggestions. He seems downright zen in regards to FF7R compared to how he was in the 2000s and early 2010s with KH and all of his other creative projects.

Something like this, though? Absolutely. He would be very hand-on with it. This is an opportunity of a lifetime if it is real.

And I do think it is real contrary to what many of you believe. I think SE is keeping it close to their chest. There is no way they didn’t find out about the rumors. They HATE that kind of culture, especially Nomura who constantly gives shade to western press and fans lol, so they would have likely made sure to keep it all locked down so no more rumors would leak.

 

[KingdomKurdistan]

I hate to tell you this but he is/was exactly that type lol. He’s changed a bit over the years and seems more reclusive than arrogant, but he’d been known for being...diva-like and...controlling is too heavy a term...

Spoiler Show

I’d tell you this story about a sandwich, Nomura, and Yasue but I’ve never been able to get anybody but one person to verify it so I’m sure it’s just a half truth twisted by the company rumor mill.

I WILL tell you about a situation that I can discuss because I was involved and I didn’t have any NDA to sign. Our site did an interview with Seth Kearsley, one of the guys who had been tapped to work on a KH animated pilot back in the early 2000s. Disney had a number of pilots in development at that time, so he wasn’t the only one but I think his was the most advanced of them.

Anyways, we did this interview then we get a message from a Japanese news hound who has ties to SE and they send this very long message about how Nomura is mad and called everything Seth said a lie and it was just insane. Essentially he wanted the interview taken down, but we just figured there was something getting lost in translation so we explained that we could verify the existence of the pilot and that our interview was just us preserving a piece of KH history. We didn’t get any threats after that so it all worked out, but man...Nomura was not happy.

Seth had also gone to Disney not long after that to see if he could pitch an idea again for it and they immediately told him no even though they had seemed very open to it before as they had agreed to the meeting about it and he sensed it something had happened lol

I do think his situation with XV pissed him off while also depressing him, but it also humbled him to a degree. He’s been less hand-on and open to suggestions. He seems downright zen in regards to FF7R compared to how he was in the 2000s and early 2010s with KH and all of his other creative projects.

Something like this, though? Absolutely. He would be very hand-on with it. This is an opportunity of a lifetime if it is real.

And I do think it is real contrary to what many of you believe. I think SE is keeping it close to their chest. There is no way they didn’t find out about the rumors. They HATE that kind of culture, especially Nomura who constantly gives shade to western press and fans lol, so they would have likely made sure to keep it all locked down so no more rumors would leak.

Lovely post. Enjoyed that spoilered chunk of KH history.


My issue isn't Nomura's insistence on creative control. That should be a given for whoever has the job and I'd be worried if they were happy to yield it.

My issue is he shouldn't have the job

 

[KeybladePenguin]

I hate to tell you this but he is/was exactly that type lol. He’s changed a bit over the years and seems more reclusive than arrogant, but he’d been known for being...diva-like and...controlling is too heavy a term...

Spoiler Show

I’d tell you this story about a sandwich, Nomura, and Yasue but I’ve never been able to get anybody but one person to verify it so I’m sure it’s just a half truth twisted by the company rumor mill.

I WILL tell you about a situation that I can discuss because I was involved and I didn’t have any NDA to sign. Our site did an interview with Seth Kearsley, one of the guys who had been tapped to work on a KH animated pilot back in the early 2000s. Disney had a number of pilots in development at that time, so he wasn’t the only one but I think his was the most advanced of them.

Anyways, we did this interview then we get a message from a Japanese news hound who has ties to SE and they send this very long message about how Nomura is mad and called everything Seth said a lie and it was just insane. Essentially he wanted the interview taken down, but we just figured there was something getting lost in translation so we explained that we could verify the existence of the pilot and that our interview was just us preserving a piece of KH history. We didn’t get any threats after that so it all worked out, but man...Nomura was not happy.

Seth had also gone to Disney not long after that to see if he could pitch an idea again for it and they immediately told him no even though they had seemed very open to it before as they had agreed to the meeting about it and he sensed it something had happened lol

I do think his situation with XV pissed him off while also depressing him, but it also humbled him to a degree. He’s been less hand-on and open to suggestions. He seems downright zen in regards to FF7R compared to how he was in the 2000s and early 2010s with KH and all of his other creative projects.

Something like this, though? Absolutely. He would be very hand-on with it. This is an opportunity of a lifetime if it is real.

And I do think it is real contrary to what many of you believe. I think SE is keeping it close to their chest. There is no way they didn’t find out about the rumors. They HATE that kind of culture, especially Nomura who constantly gives shade to western press and fans lol, so they would have likely made sure to keep it all locked down so no more rumors would leak.

What situation with XV? That it sucked or that his original idea got shafted?

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

What situation with XV? That it sucked or that his original idea got shafted?

He was kicked off the project a year into its new development cycle.

I don’t think he cared that his original ideas were shafted. He probably didn’t want people who weren’t him using them anyways. He was probably more upset about the loss of the characters and feeling upset he couldn’t implement his vision.

He went into a really bad depressive spiral. He bought cats and threw himself into KH. SE started sending him on a lot of event tours after the XV debacle like Comic Con and 2.5’s launch event, and he was invited to do a lot of collaborations with various companies at the time...I think it was a way to give him a vacation and a way to show him fans still loved his work.

But ever since getting kicked off of XV, he’s been more collaborative and open to suggestions from what I can tell in interviews. And again, with VIIR, he’s absolutely zen because he’s always very public about how it’s so many different people helping to create the game and not just his ideas.

 

[KeybladePenguin]

I love your display pic, though.

Thanks bro.

He was kicked off the project a year into its new development cycle.

I don’t think he cared that his original ideas were shafted. He probably didn’t want people who weren’t him using them anyways. He was probably more upset about the loss of the characters and feeling upset he couldn’t implement his vision.

He went into a really bad depressive spiral. He bought cats and threw himself into KH. SE started sending him on a lot of event tours after the XV debacle like Comic Con and 2.5’s launch event, and he was invited to do a lot of collaborations with various companies at the time...I think it was a way to give him a vacation and a way to show him fans still loved his work.

But ever since getting kicked off of XV, he’s been more collaborative and open to suggestions from what I can tell in interviews. And again, with VIIR, he’s absolutely zen because he’s always very public about how it’s so many different people helping to create the game and not just his ideas.

Yeah well...I mean his original characters may have been better. For what its worth I already really like Yozora. But if he takes suggestions he may have someone on his payroll who FINALLY tells him certain things make no sense in his plots. I just hope he doesnt COMPLETELY lose the crazy. It would unironically make the series worse.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

That worries me personally. Square needs complete creative control in order to keep things running smooth.

Square Enix never had complete creative control, Disney always gave the final stamp of approval because they own Kingdom Hearts. Nomura wanted Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for Kingdom Hearts III but Disney denied that request.

 

[KudoTsurugi]

I hate to tell you this but he is/was exactly that type lol. He’s changed a bit over the years and seems more reclusive than arrogant, but he’d been known for being...diva-like and...controlling is too heavy a term...

Spoiler Show

I’d tell you this story about a sandwich, Nomura, and Yasue but I’ve never been able to get anybody but one person to verify it so I’m sure it’s just a half truth twisted by the company rumor mill.

I WILL tell you about a situation that I can discuss because I was involved and I didn’t have any NDA to sign. Our site did an interview with Seth Kearsley, one of the guys who had been tapped to work on a KH animated pilot back in the early 2000s. Disney had a number of pilots in development at that time, so he wasn’t the only one but I think his was the most advanced of them.

Anyways, we did this interview then we get a message from a Japanese news hound who has ties to SE and they send this very long message about how Nomura is mad and called everything Seth said a lie and it was just insane. Essentially he wanted the interview taken down, but we just figured there was something getting lost in translation so we explained that we could verify the existence of the pilot and that our interview was just us preserving a piece of KH history. We didn’t get any threats after that so it all worked out, but man...Nomura was not happy.

Seth had also gone to Disney not long after that to see if he could pitch an idea again for it and they immediately told him no even though they had seemed very open to it before as they had agreed to the meeting about it and he sensed it something had happened lol

I do think his situation with XV pissed him off while also depressing him, but it also humbled him to a degree. He’s been less hand-on and open to suggestions. He seems downright zen in regards to FF7R compared to how he was in the 2000s and early 2010s with KH and all of his other creative projects.

Something like this, though? Absolutely. He would be very hand-on with it. This is an opportunity of a lifetime if it is real.

And I do think it is real contrary to what many of you believe. I think SE is keeping it close to their chest. There is no way they didn’t find out about the rumors. They HATE that kind of culture, especially Nomura who constantly gives shade to western press and fans lol, so they would have likely made sure to keep it all locked down so no more rumors would leak.

While I’m still wary on it being a thing, I trust you. We’ll see if they announce it later on this winter or next year.

 

[KeybladePenguin]

Square Enix never had complete creative control, Disney always gave the final stamp of approval because they own Kingdom Hearts. Nomura wanted Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for Kingdom Hearts III but Disney denied that request.

They also denied Treasure Planet in DDD so...I mean I already dislike them. God I wish we got Oswald.

 

[Squood!]

About the Versus/XV thing, you guys think Verum Rex wouldn't have been a thinly veiled Versus revival attempt if XV didn't get effed over after Tabata quit?

Like, Verum Rex just screams "I'm still mad about it".

 

[Wanderlust]

Think KH would bomb as a Disney+ show given the nature of the series. It'd just get dumbed down and over-explained for kids, and the edgy Final Fantasy stuff would never make it in.

 

[KudoTsurugi]

Think KH would bomb as a Disney+ show given the nature of the series. It'd just get dumbed down and over-explained for kids, and the edgy Final Fantasy stuff would never make it in.

I don’t think that’d happen. Otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten Pirates of the Caribbean as a world in the games. And that was a PG-13 among worlds based on G to PG-rated films at the time. The most they’d probably ask for is no blood, and that’s taken care of.

Though considering the other projects on Disney+, there could be some potential for leeway regarding censorship. We don’t know.

 

[KingdomKurdistan]

Think KH would bomb as a Disney+ show given the nature of the series. It'd just get dumbed down and over-explained for kids, and the edgy Final Fantasy stuff would never make it in.

Disney gets hella dark when it wants to.

In fact, I feel the opposite is true: many of the dark stuff in Disney properties is dumbed down with their sharp edges blunted in KH. Which is odd because at times KH itself is morbidly dark anyway.

Feels like the maturity of KH is cyclical. Just as the series got darker in the early sequels, KH3's quasi-reset tonally is down to a generational shift. It'll ramp up from here just like the older games did.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

About the Versus/XV thing, you guys think Verum Rex wouldn't have been a thinly veiled Versus revival attempt if XV didn't get effed over after Tabata quit?

Like, Verum Rex just screams "I'm still mad about it".

I think if Tabata had stayed with SE, Verum Rex would have never been so blatantly Versus XIII.

And I think Nomura is pulling his ideas into KH to make sure SE doesn’t have direct hold over them. It’s clever.

 

[2 quid is good]

I’d tell you this story about a sandwich, Nomura, and Yasue

I never heard of a disaster that didn't start with a sandwich

read: WW1

 

[MATGSY]

They also denied Treasure Planet in DDD so...I mean I already dislike them. God I wish we got Oswald.

Disney doesn't even know what to do with him anymore.