Disney announced the show at D23 Friday night, developed with series creator Tetsuya Nomura. It’s headed to Disney+ and Disney Channel, and it isn’t adapting the games.
Tetsuya Nomura has spent twenty-four years telling this story in games. Now he’s helping tell a different one on television.
Disney announced a Kingdom Hearts anime series at the Disney Entertainment Showcase Friday night, developed in partnership with Nomura and the creative team at Square Enix.
It’s going to Disney+ and Disney Channel.
What the Kingdom Hearts anime is about
Not the games.
Disney’s description says the series reimagines the adventure with an original story that expands the Kingdom Hearts universe while celebrating the characters fans already know.
Kotaku reported that the show will not follow Sora, Donald, and Goofy, and will instead tell a new story inside the same universe.
That’s a real distinction. An adaptation retells what players already played. This appears to be new material in a continuity Nomura controls, which raises the question of whether it counts as canon. Disney has not said.
Who’s making the Kingdom Hearts series
Nomura, working with Disney.
Ayo Davis, president of Disney Kids & Family, said in a statement that the creative team is working closely with Nomura and that the result will be “unmistakably ‘Kingdom Hearts.’”
Davis also framed the appeal as taking a world fans have explored through games for years and building it somewhere new.
No studio, showrunner, writer, or voice cast has been named. Variety notes that Kingdom Hearts is a working title for the adaptation, so even the name may change.
Where it was announced
During the Pixar block, oddly enough.
Benjamin Bratt took the stage to discuss Coco 2, then announced the Kingdom Hearts series. The same segment revealed that Coco is a world in Kingdom Hearts IV and that Bratt is voicing Ernesto de la Cruz in the game.
One actor delivered three separate pieces of Kingdom Hearts news, none of which was about Coco 2.
Why Disney is doing this now
The numbers explain most of it.
Disney disclosed this week that Kingdom Hearts is one of nine billion-dollar franchises in its games portfolio. The series has sold more than 39 million units worldwide since the first game launched on PlayStation 2 in March 2002.
Disney Games has driven roughly $3.5 billion in annual consumer spending in recent years and crossed $4 billion in the last fiscal year.
A franchise at that scale with no presence outside consoles is an obvious gap. The anime fills it.
When does the Kingdom Hearts anime come out
No date.
The stage card said Coming Soon and nothing further. Kingdom Hearts IV arrives in late 2027, and Kingdom Hearts Collection [I~III] lands October 8.
There’s also a Kingdom Hearts panel Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Pacific, streaming on Disney’s YouTube channel, with Haley Joel Osment and David Gallagher on stage. If the show isn’t following Sora, the men who voice Sora and Riku are about to be asked how they feel about that.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
Pirates and Princesses is your destination for Disney news, theme park updates, and the pop culture you love. From Disney cruises and travel tips to Disney fashion, food, collectibles, and movie news, PNP covers it all. Visit us at piratesandprincesses.net for daily coverage. Follow PNP on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to the Pirates & Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Hat Tips:
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Variety (August 14, 2026), the anime framing, the working title note, the Nomura partnership, the Disney+ and Disney Channel platforms, the Bratt announcement, and the 39 million units figure
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Deadline (August 14, 2026), the greenlight reporting and the Ayo Davis statement
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Kotaku (August 14, 2026), the report that the series will not follow Sora, Donald, and Goofy
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SlashFilm (August 14, 2026), the Davis statement in full and the billion-dollar franchise context
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Nintendo Life (August 13, 2026), Disney Games Group’s billion-dollar franchise disclosure and the annual consumer spend figures
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