Disney Is Making a Kingdom Hearts Anime Series
Disney has announced an anime series based on the Kingdom Hearts video game franchise. The series will stream on Disney+ and also air on Disney Channel. Disney revealed the project at its D23 fan event on August 15, 2026, and confirmed it on the company's official Instagram account Engadget.
The series will tell a brand-new story that builds on the franchise's existing storyline while featuring characters from the games. Disney developed the anime with Tetsuya Nomura, the director and character designer behind the Kingdom Hearts games, along with the creative team at Square Enix, the company that makes the games Engadget. Variety reported the project as a TV series on Disney+, with distribution spanning both the streaming platform and the traditional Disney Channel Variety.
Disney also shared new details about the next Kingdom Hearts game. During the same D23 presentation, the company showed a brief look at Kingdom Hearts IV, revealing that the game will include a world based on Pixar's Coco. Square Enix plans to release Kingdom Hearts IV in late 2027 Engadget.
The decision to release the anime on both Disney+ and Disney Channel is worth noting. Most anime series today are released only on streaming platforms. By also putting it on the Disney Channel, Disney is signaling that the franchise can reach both audiences who stream on demand and those who watch traditional TV schedules. Anime has been a strong draw for streaming viewers, and a dual-platform release lets Disney reach more people across different age groups.
Having Nomura and Square Enix involved from the start matters because it means the people who created the games are helping shape the show. When video games are adapted into movies or TV series, the original creators are sometimes left out of the process, and the results have often disappointed fans. Disney's choice to build the anime with the game's original team suggests the show will stay close to the spirit of the games.
Kingdom Hearts has always been an unusual franchise. It combines Square Enix's role-playing game design with Disney's well-known characters, creating something neither company could have made on its own. That same collaboration extends to the anime: Disney owns the platforms where it will be shown, and Square Enix guides the story and characters. Whether that arrangement produces a show that feels unified will depend on details that have not yet been shared.
Several practical questions remain unanswered. Disney did not name the studio that will animate the series, did not specify how many episodes there will be or how long each one will run, and gave no release date beyond "coming soon." The promise of a "brand-new story" suggests the anime will not simply retell the plot of any one game, but how it connects to the main game storyline and whether new viewers can follow it without having played the games are still open questions.
For existing fans, the timing makes sense. Kingdom Hearts IV is still more than a year away, and an anime series could keep audiences interested during what would otherwise be a long wait between games. The reveal that KHIV will feature a world based on Coco shows that Square Enix is continuing the franchise's tradition of weaving specific Disney and Pixar settings into the games' stories.
The broader context here is Disney's ongoing effort to turn its video game properties into shows and movies. Disney has been willing to use its streaming platform to distribute projects that connect across games, TV, and film. Kingdom Hearts, which already sits at the crossroads of gaming and Disney audiences, fits that strategy well. How well this anime performs will likely influence how aggressively Disney pursues similar projects in the future.
No production timeline or premiere date has been announced.
