Just a few days after the profiles for Kingdom Hearts 4 co-director Tai Yasue and actors Haley Joel Osment (Sora/Vanitas) and David Gallagher (Riku) were discovered on the app for Disney’s upcoming D23 event, the company has made it official. D23 on August 15th at 4:30 PM PT will feature a deep dive panel for Kingdom Hearts. While details about the panel have not been fully revealed, in a social media post, Disney has confirmed that Nana Gadd (Disney & Pixar Games) and Renée Johnson (Disney voice actor) will also be present at the event.
It is worth noting that Disney hasn’t yet stated whether this panel will focus on Kingdom Hearts 4, or if it will instead be a deep dive on the entire franchise. However, considering the fact that we got a trailer for Kingdom Hearts 4 this year, Square Enix and Disney are likely getting ready to reveal more details about the upcoming game.
Kingdom Hearts 4 is being developed for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2, and while it doesn’t have a release date yet, rumors have indicated that it might come out sometime in 2027. Since being discovered in June, however, the two separate store listings that had mentioned Kingdom Hearts 4 have removed mentions of the release windows.
Story details about Kingdom Hearts 4 haven’t been revealed. However, back in January 2025, franchise director Tetsuya Nomura had discussed the concept of crossroads playing an important role in the series on the 15th anniversary of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep.
“Apparently, the plan is to release my comment alongside the teaser trailer for BBS from the secret movie in Kingdom Hearts 2,” he said at the time. “So, taking my cue from that video, I’d like to give you an insight into the crossroads.” He went on to discuss the video, which featured three Keyblade users waiting for someone at a crossroads. “Meeting someone at a crossroads is actually a recurring motif in Kingdom Hearts. At the beginning of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (CoM), Sora meets someone in a black coat and is invited to Castle Oblivion.”
The more recent Kingdom Hearts 3 had crossroads appearing as well, where the Lost Masters gather before things take a dramatic turn. “But wait… when the Lost Masters gather at the crossroads in KH3, what is gained and what is lost? That’s a story for another time,” Nomura concluded.
The most recent mainline entry in the Kingdom Hearts franchise was 2019’s Kingdom Hearts 3, which served as the finale for the Dark Seeker Saga that was kicked off with the original Kingdom Hearts. It got an expansion pack in 2020, dubbed ReMind, which involved Sora trying to undo some of the tragedy that took place during the Keyblade War.
Kingdom Hearts 4 is slated to be the second game in what has been described as the Lost Master Arc of the franchise. Following up on the 2020 rhythm game Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, Kingdom Hearts 4 will focus on Sora’s continued fight against the darkness while also trying to escape the Quadratum.
