D23 certainly dropped a number of exciting events, and it was only just the first night of festivities.
D23 is the official Disney fan club, named after the club's founding year in 1923, and it's best known in modern times for its sprawling biennial fan convention that has a number of exciting reveals for Marvel, Star Wars, Disney Animation, Pixar, and more.
On the game's side, there were two surprising reveals: the announcement of a Kingdom Hearts TV anime series for Disney+ and a new trailer for Kingdom Hearts IV that revealed a Coco land and confirmed a release date.
The upcoming anime was created in collaboration with iconic video game creator Tetsuya Nomura (Final Fantasy VII, VIII and X) and the creative team at SQUARE ENIX (Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest) and will be an original story.
Ayo Davis, president, Disney Kids & Family, commented, "Kingdom Hearts has captivated gamers everywhere with its unique blend of adventure and imagination. There’s something really exciting about taking a world fans have spent years exploring through the games and bringing it to life in a completely new way. And with a creative team that is working closely with the legendary Tetsuya Nomura, our new series will be unmistakably ‘Kingdom Hearts,’ while giving fans a whole new way to experience the world they love."
As mentioned above, also revealed was a new Coco-inspired trailer for Kingdom Hearts IV, which was also confirmed to have a late-2027 release window.
The fourth mainline game starring Sora and his crew is now available to wishlist on PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox ON PC, Nintendo Switch 2, Steam, and Epic Games Store.
After years of rumors, the KH IV was first officially announced back in April 2022 at April 10, 2022, during the Kingdom Hearts 20th Anniversary Event in Tokyo.
Besides Coco, other confirmed world set to appear is a Tokyo-inspired Quadratum city where Sora appears to be living following the events of Kingdom Hearts III. Other rumored worlds set to appear include Star Wars/Endor forest, Motunui (Moana), Zootropolis (Zootopia), Metroville (The Incredibles), and Game Central Station (Wreck-it Ralph).
At its core, Kingdom Hearts follows Sora, a boy wielding a magical Keyblade, who teams up with Donald Duck and Goofy to save the multiverse from darkness.
They travel to different universes (iconic Disney IPs) to protect the Princesses of Heart from being captured by an evil organization that wants to use their powers to forge the legendary χ-blade Keyblade and open Kingdom Hearts (the heart of all worlds) where they can remake the entire multiverse as they see fit.