Kingdom Hearts Anime Series Officially Announced by Disney
Image by James RichardsonKingdom Hearts is officially heading to television, with Disney announcing that an original anime series based on the hugely popular Square Enix franchise has been greenlit for Disney Channel and Disney+.
The announcement was made during D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim, where Disney is celebrating the approaching 25th anniversary of Kingdom Hearts alongside a weekend of announcements covering its upcoming movies, television series, games and other projects.
Kingdom Hearts first debuted in 2002 as an ambitious collaboration between Square Enix and Disney, following Keyblade wielder Sora as he travels between different worlds alongside Donald Duck and Goofy while encountering characters and settings from both Disney and Square Enix properties.
The newly announced anime will give that universe its first full television series, although Disney has not yet shared details covering its story, animation studio, episode count, cast or release window.
It also remains to be seen whether the series will retell events from the games, explore an original part of the Kingdom Hearts timeline or take the franchise in a different direction created specifically for television.
The idea of a Kingdom Hearts animated series actually stretches back more than two decades, with Disney developing a television pilot shortly after the original game’s release in the early 2000s.
Directed by Seth Kearsley, the project reached the animatic stage and was intended for Disney television, but the proposed series was ultimately shelved despite Kearsley later revealing that the pilot had performed strongly during testing.
Kearsley eventually shared the long-lost animatic publicly in 2022 before removing it at Disney’s request, meaning the newly greenlit project represents a second opportunity to bring Kingdom Hearts into the world of serialized animation.
The timing also places the announcement at the center of a particularly active period for the franchise, with D23 hosting a dedicated DEEP DIVE into KINGDOM HEARTS presentation on August 15 as part of its 25th anniversary celebrations.
Disney describes the panel as a look back at how Disney, Pixar and Square Enix came together to create the series, with creative talent and character voices involved in the franchise taking part in the celebration.
The presentation is scheduled for August 15 at 4:30 PM PT and will be streamed online, giving fans outside the Anaheim event a chance to follow the anniversary panel as it happens.
Kingdom Hearts IV also remains in development, with Square Enix recently confirming releases for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, the Epic Games Store and Steam, with D23 also bringing a first look at a newly announced Coco World and the confirmation of a late 2027 release date.
Fans are also getting a major new 25th anniversary merchandise release, with Bandai launching its Ichiban Kuji Kingdom Hearts -25th Anniversary- lottery collection in Japan on August 15.
The prize lineup is led by a Sora statue featuring a stained-glass-style backdrop, while King Mickey, Donald and Goofy receive smaller desktop figures and a matching Riku statue serves as the Last One Prize awarded to whoever purchases the final ticket at a participating location.
Square Enix has separately announced another production run for its frequently sold-out Dearly Beloved music box, which plays an 18-note mechanical arrangement of Yoko Shimomura’s recurring Kingdom Hearts theme and is scheduled to return in Japan on December 26, 2026.
Image by Charlotte DavisKingdom Hearts Collection [I~III] is also scheduled for October 8, bringing HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX, HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue and Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind together for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
With Kingdom Hearts IV still on the way, its 25th anniversary celebrations now underway and an official anime finally moving forward after an earlier television project failed to reach production, the franchise is heading into its anniversary year with considerably more happening beyond the games alone.
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