Kingdom Hearts Anime Officially Announced for Disney+

Aug 16, 2026

After years of rumors, speculation, and abandoned attempts, Kingdom Hearts is finally making the jump from video games to television.

Disney has officially announced that an original Kingdom Hearts anime series is in development for Disney+ and Disney Channel, bringing Square Enix’s beloved action-RPG franchise to animation for the first time as a full series.

The announcement was made during Disney’s D23 2026 festivities, where Kingdom Hearts has received plenty of attention as the franchise approaches its 25th anniversary. Disney confirmed the animated project alongside other major developments surrounding the series.

A New Kingdom Hearts Adventure

Rather than simply recreating one of the existing games scene-for-scene, the upcoming anime is expected to tell a new story inspired by the Kingdom Hearts universe.

Disney is developing the project in collaboration with Kingdom Hearts creator Tetsuya Nomura and the creative team at Square Enix. Reports surrounding the announcement indicate the series will expand the existing universe while paying tribute to the characters and ideas that have made the franchise popular with fans for more than two decades.

That’s potentially a major advantage for the adaptation.

Trying to condense the enormous Kingdom Hearts storyline into a traditional television adaptation would be no small task. The franchise’s story stretches across numerous games, platforms, timelines and characters. An original story could give Disney and Square Enix considerably more freedom while still using the worlds, mythology and concepts fans recognize.

Disney’s official description keeps things deliberately vague, calling the project an original anime series “inspired by” the video game franchise.

For now, exactly where the series fits within Kingdom Hearts continuity remains one of its biggest unanswered questions.

Disney and Square Enix Are Working Together

The involvement of Square Enix and Tetsuya Nomura should be particularly encouraging for longtime fans.

Nomura has directed the franchise since the original Kingdom Hearts launched in 2002, while Square Enix describes the series as a collaboration between the company and Disney centered around Sora’s adventures through Disney worlds alongside Donald Duck and Goofy.

That relationship has produced one of gaming’s most unusual crossovers.

What began as the seemingly bizarre idea of combining Square Enix-style RPG characters with Disney properties eventually grew into a major gaming franchise spanning more than two decades.

Disney recently described Kingdom Hearts as a billion-dollar gaming franchise, demonstrating just how large the series has become since its PlayStation 2 debut.

An animated series now gives Disney an opportunity to introduce that universe to an audience that may never have picked up one of the games.

Kingdom Hearts Has Almost Become a TV Series Before

Interestingly, this isn’t Disney’s first attempt at bringing Kingdom Hearts to television.

An animated television adaptation was considered shortly after the original game’s release. Director Seth Kearsley developed a pilot for Disney Channel that would have followed Sora, Riku and Kairi beginning their adventure on Destiny Islands.

The project ultimately never became a full series.

Storyboards and information about the abandoned production eventually surfaced online, and the pilot became something of a curiosity among Kingdom Hearts fans. Rumors of another Disney+ adaptation also circulated years later, but nothing materialized into an officially released show.

More than two decades later, Disney is finally giving the concept another shot.

The Timing Couldn’t Be Better

The anime announcement arrives as Disney and Square Enix begin another major push for Kingdom Hearts.

Kingdom Hearts IV is currently in development, continuing Sora’s story following the events of Kingdom Hearts III. Disney’s D23 celebration has also put the franchise front and center as it prepares to celebrate 25 years since the original game’s release.

That makes an animated series a logical expansion.

Disney has an enormous streaming audience through Disney+, while Kingdom Hearts already features characters and worlds from some of the company’s most recognizable franchises. Animation also gives the creators far more flexibility to reproduce the exaggerated combat, magical environments and visual style of the games than a live-action adaptation likely could.

There is also plenty of material available.

From Keyblade wielders and Heartless to Organization XIII, the various Disney worlds and the ongoing conflict between light and darkness, Kingdom Hearts has accumulated enough characters and mythology to support far more than a straightforward adaptation of a single game.

When Will the Kingdom Hearts Anime Release?

That’s the big question Disney hasn’t answered yet.

The company has only said that the original Kingdom Hearts anime series is “coming soon” to Disney+ and Disney Channel. A specific release date, episode count and full voice cast have not been announced.

It is also unclear whether familiar voice actors from the games will return for the anime or exactly which established Kingdom Hearts characters will appear.

Those details will likely determine just how closely the show connects to the games.

For longtime fans, though, the biggest news is simply that the project is finally real.

After more than 20 years of Kingdom Hearts being almost exclusively a video game franchise, Sora’s universe is preparing to open another door — this time on Disney+.

And considering how many doors Kingdom Hearts has asked players to unlock over the years, that feels strangely appropriate.