Tetsuya Nomura, director of the Kingdom Hearts series, says a Kingdom Hearts 4 delay “is not happening,” pushing back against fan speculation that the game’s late 2027 release window could slip.
The reassurance came a day after Square Enix confirmed the release timing during Disney‘s D23 conference in Anaheim, California. Nomura made a surprise appearance at a Kingdom Hearts panel the following night to address the reaction directly, speaking through an on-stage interpreter.
No reason for a Kingdom Hearts 4 delay, Nomura says
Nomura acknowledged that some fans doubted the announced date would hold. “We announced that the game is going to be coming late 2027, and I saw online that some people were saying ‘oh, you know, maybe the actual release date might still get pushed back’. I just wanted to set the record straight, that is not happening,” he said.
He added that marketing for the game has only just started and encouraged players to expect more news before launch. The scepticism is not without precedent among longtime fans of the series.
Kingdom Hearts 3 was first announced in 2013 and did not reach players until 2019, a six-year wait between announcement and release. More than a decade passed between Kingdom Hearts 2’s launch in 2005 and Kingdom Hearts 3’s eventual arrival, a gap that still shapes how fans read release windows for the series today.
Kingdom Hearts 4 was itself revealed in April 2022, with almost no further detail until this year. Friday’s date confirmation at D23 gave fans their first concrete release window since that initial reveal, more than three years earlier. Square Enix has not confirmed which platforms will receive Kingdom Hearts 4 at launch, or whether the late 2027 window applies to every region.
Kingdom Hearts anime series and Coco world confirmed
Alongside the release date, Square Enix used the D23 weekend to reveal a Kingdom Hearts animated series, planned for Disney+ and Disney Channel. It is the franchise’s first move into television, though Square Enix has not said who is producing it, whether it will retell existing games or tell a new story, or when it might air.
Square Enix also confirmed the first Disney-themed world built specifically for Kingdom Hearts 4, based on Coco, the 2017 Pixar film that won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The world follows a boy who travels to the Land of the Dead to uncover his family’s history with music.
It joins a series history of reimagining Disney and Pixar films as playable worlds, following Toy Story and Frozen in Kingdom Hearts 3. Square Enix did not say how much of Coco’s story the world will draw from, or whether original cast members will voice their characters.
Neither the animated series nor the Coco world had leaked ahead of D23, making both surprise additions to an event already expected to focus on the release date. D23 is Disney’s biennial fan convention, and this was the first time a mainline Kingdom Hearts entry received a firm release year there.
- Kingdom Hearts 4 targets a late 2027 release, confirmed at D23 Anaheim.
- A Kingdom Hearts animated series is in development for Disney+ and Disney Channel.
- Coco is the first world confirmed specifically for Kingdom Hearts 4.