Disney, Square Enix preview ‘Kingdom Hearts 4’ at fan convention

Walt Disney DIS.N and Japanese video game company Square Enix 9684.T on Saturday previewed the yet-to-be-released "Kingdom Hearts 4" game as they celebrated the high-selling franchise's upcoming 25th anniversary at a Disney fan convention in Anaheim.

"Kingdom Hearts" is one of nine video games that have grossed more than $1 billion at retail for Disney, its executive vice president of games and digital entertainment Sean Shoptaw said in the company's strategy report on Thursday.

Blending characters and worlds from the Square Enix "Final Fantasy" franchise and Disney films, the action role-playing series "Kingdom Hearts" follows Sora, a teenager whose home world is destroyed by creatures known as Heartless.

"Kingdom Hearts 4" follows Sora after the events of the third game as he becomes trapped in Quadratum, a fictional version of Shibuya, a real-life business hub in Tokyo, Japan.

"Kingdom Hearts 4" will debut in 2027, and a panel at Disney's D23 entertainment showcase on Saturday displayed a four-minute trailer featuring a new world based on Pixar's "Coco," expanding on the 90 seconds of footage shown on Friday.

The extended footage reunited fans with familiar characters including Donald, Goofy, King Mickey and Hades, along with original "Kingdom Hearts" characters and glimpses of other worlds.

The panel included surprise guest Tetsuya Nomura, creator of the franchise, who said he aimed to include Disney titles that created strong gameplay synergies.

"We felt that 'Coco' would be the best world that would really help to achieve that," he said of the film about a boy who enters the "Land of the Dead" to find his great-great-grandfather, a legendary singer.

Panelists also shared details about the new Paper Mickey Mouse world, where Mickey becomes a playable character in a storybook setting for the first time.

Players can travel through cracks in walls, transform into an airplane and solve puzzles, marking a departure from the series' traditional adventure format.

Panelists also teased a significant role for "Sleeping Beauty" villain Maleficent, who is returning for "Kingdom Hearts 4."

The first "Kingdom Hearts" game was released in 2002 for the PlayStation 2. Directed by Nomura, it launched a long-running collaboration between Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company.

The franchise will be adapted into an original anime series for Disney Channel and Disney+, it was announced on Friday. No title or release date was given, though Nomura said on Saturday that he is heavily involved in its development.

-Reporting by Danielle Broadway; Editing by Jamie Freed/Reuters