Overview
- At D23 on Friday, Disney and Square Enix revealed that Kingdom Hearts IV will launch in late 2027 and showed a new trailer confirming Pixar’s Coco (the Land of the Dead) as a playable world.
- Disney also announced an original Kingdom Hearts anime series for Disney Channel and Disney+, which will tell a new story developed in partnership with creator Tetsuya Nomura and the Square Enix creative team.
- Both companies framed the moves as part of a broader strategy to expand the franchise’s commercial reach after Disney Games Group called Kingdom Hearts one of its nine 'billion‑dollar' game properties.
- Key specifics are still pending: the anime’s studio, episode count, release timing, and whether the series will be fully canonical have not been disclosed, and Square Enix has given only a 'late 2027' window rather than a precise KH4 date.
- Fans should expect more details during the scheduled D23 'Deep Dive into Kingdom Hearts' panel and future updates, and the dual game/TV push could raise licensing, casting, and continuity questions that affect how the franchise ties together across media.