Gawrsh! It’s time to fire up the rumor mill because fresh hearsay suggests a Kingdom Hearts movie is in the works. Dear Kingdom Hearts fans, before you start seeing stars and giving your keyblade replica a shine, it’s important to note that this news is as unofficial as it comes. DisInsider says Square Enix‘s beloved Disney x Final Fantasy crossover is getting the motion picture treatment. The site’s founder, Skyler Shuler, wrote about the adaptation rumor in a mailbag post, saying a source confirmed the pie-in-the-sky project.
Shuler’s source says the Kingdom Hearts movie began as a Disney+ project but is now heading to theaters. The rumor corresponds with a post shared by industry leaker DanielRPK, who also claims a silver screen adaptation of the character-rich RPG is happening. DisInsider says Disney has yet to greenlight the film, so take all this with a grain of salt. I’ll be filing this in the “I’ll believe it when I see it” pile because we’ve been down this road before. It’s true. A Kingdom Hearts series was rumored to be developing 20 years ago, with an animatic of the pilot going to YouTube.
For the uninitiated, Kingdom Hearts is a long-running action RPG video game franchise featuring various Disney and Final Fantasy characters. Disney and Square Enix tell the Kingdom Hearts story over several games, including mainline titles and lore-enhancing entries, like Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance, and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.
The story of Kingdom Hearts is extraordinarily convoluted, with even some of the franchise’s biggest fans needing clarification on the long-running tale. However, the first game in the series revolves around Sora, a young boy whose world gets destroyed by a mysterious force. After his friends go missing, Sora finds himself on a quest to find them. Donald Duck (a magic user) and Goofy (a Barbarian-like heavy) join Sora on his adventure and travel to a variety of popular Disney worlds, like Wonderland, Olympus Coliseum, Deep Jungle, 100 Acre Wood, Traverse Town, Agrabah, and more.
A Kingdom Hearts movie would be a monumental undertaking, with the story department working overtime to ensure casual audiences can follow the plot. Still, it would likely become the most talked-about crossover event in ages, with countless characters from across Disney and Final Fantasy lore involved in the feature-length odyssey.
Could a Kingdom Hearts movie happen at Disney? Are you a fan of the video game series? Let us know in the comments section below.