Image: Square Enix
The Kingdom Hearts movie will reportedly feature a blend of live-action and CGI visuals.
Square Enix’s iconic action-RPG game franchise Kingdom Hearts is heading to the big screen, according to a report from leaker DanielRPK, who has had a decent track record with insider reports such as these in the past. Disney is said to be developing the project as a live-action/CGI hybrid, in the vein of the recent Sonic the Hedgehog movies.
Kingdom Hearts movie adaptation is in the works at Disney
Rumours of a Kingdom Hearts adaptation have been circulating since 2020, when an animated TV series based on the games was reported to be in the works for Disney+. According to newer reports from The DisInsider and DanielRPK, that series has now morphed into a full-blown movie.
This isn’t the first time a Kingdom Hearts adaptation has gone into development, either. The Disney Channel greenlit a pilot for a TV adaptation of Kingdom Hearts back in 2003, but opted against giving it a series order. The decision largely came down to difficulties in keeping the series in line with the ever-expanding universe of the games, but a pilot animatic from the planned series was later published online in 2022.
That animatic was later taken down by Disney, but it may have reignited the company’s interest in making an adaptation happen. DanielRPK reports that a Kingdom Hearts movie adaptation is in the works at Disney as of April 26, though the project hasn’t been officially greenlit. If it does come to fruition, it will be as a big screen release in theaters and not a direct-to-streaming movie on Disney+.
The leaker later claimed that the movie would be a live-action/CGI hybrid, following the formula of the ongoing Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. DanielRPK also mentioned that the next main instalment in the Kingdom Hearts series, Kingdom Hearts 4, will launch sometime in 2025. That would bring the franchise back to prominence just in time for a potential movie adaptation, should the project go through at Disney.
Given that the Kingdom Hearts series has gradually become more detached to its original roots as a Disney-Final Fantasy crossover, however, it’s likely that the movie will mostly feature characters and worlds from the Walt Disney Company alone. This is assuming that the project plans to adapt the events of the first Kingdom Hearts game, and not go the route of a Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children-like theatrical sequel.
