Disney says a Kingdom Hearts movie is still possible: why the talk is back

Disney hasn’t announced a Kingdom Hearts movie. Still, the idea got a fresh jolt recently after Walt Disney Animation Studios chief creative officer Jared Bush reportedly said that “nothing is impossible.”

That still falls well short of an actual film landing on Disney’s release calendar. Even so, the comment matters: Kingdom Hearts already ranks as one of Disney’s “billion-dollar franchises,” and Square Enix said the crossover series had shipped more than 36 million copies worldwide as of March 2022.

At that size, with decades of goodwill around the characters and a loyal fanbase spread across the world, it’s easy to see why talk of a Kingdom Hearts movie keeps coming back.

Disney is already taking Kingdom Hearts beyond games with a new animated project, currently titled Kingdom Hearts. It was announced at D23 for Disney+ and Disney Channel, and it’s being developed with Kingdom Hearts creator Tetsuya Nomura as an original story rather than a straight retelling.

If you follow Kingdom Hearts, that’s something to keep an eye on, even if a movie would be hard to pull off. The lore is dense, the timelines shift all over the place, the cast is huge, and animation still feels like the safer fit over a live-action/CGI hybrid.

For now, the Kingdom Hearts series for Disney+ and Disney Channel is the clearer thing to look forward to, while Kingdom Hearts IV is still targeting late 2027 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2.