Every Major Kingdom Hearts Announcement from D23 2026

The Coco World Reveal

The first officially revealed Disney world in Kingdom Hearts 4 is Pixar’s Coco. A 90-second teaser shown during the Disney Entertainment Showcase on Friday night surprised the audience by having Sora interrupt what initially appeared to be a standard Coco trailer .

An extended 4-minute trailer was then shown during the Deep Dive panel the following day, expanding on the footage and revealing more of the Land of the Dead, where Sora is shown navigating the vibrant world and interacting with characters from the film .

Paper Mickey and Playable Donald & Goofy

One of the biggest surprises of the extended trailer was the introduction of a paper-thin, storybook-style world starring King Mickey . This 2D, hand-drawn segment shows Mickey exploring a unique universe, searching for clues to Sora’s whereabouts .

Crucially, the trailer confirms that King Mickey, Donald Duck, and Goofy are all individually playable characters in Kingdom Hearts 4 . This is a major shift from the traditional setup where they were party members or NPCs; the extended trailer shows gameplay segments where you control each character separately, with Donald and Goofy shown sledding through the Underworld and using abilities .

Kingdom Hearts Anime Series

Beyond the games, Disney announced a landmark television project: an original anime series (working title Kingdom Hearts: The Series) has been greenlit for Disney Channel and Disney+ .

The series is being developed in partnership with Square Enix, with Tetsuya Nomura and the games’ creative team contributing . Crucially, Disney has clarified that this will be an original story set within the Kingdom Hearts universe, not a direct adaptation of the game’s plot . Tetsuya Nomura made a surprise appearance at the panel to discuss the project .

No premiere date, animation studio, or voice cast have been announced yet .

Kingdom Hearts Collection [I~III] — October 8, 2026

While announced at the June 2026 Nintendo Direct rather than D23 itself, Square Enix used the D23 panel to remind fans about the Kingdom Hearts Collection [I~III] bundle .

The comprehensive package, launching on October 8, 2026, includes:

• Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX
• Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue
• Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind (DLC)

It will be available for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S (and PC via Xbox on PC) .

What Wasn’t a D23 Announcement

A detail about Kingdom Hearts being “one of exactly nine Disney video game properties to surpass $1 billion in retail sales” was mentioned in the original question. While this may be a true statistic from a broader Disney games financial report, there is insufficient evidence from the available D23 coverage to confirm this specific claim was announced or detailed at D23 2026 itself. This article focuses solely on the concrete announcements made during the event.

The Deep Dive Panel

The “Deep Dive into Kingdom Hearts” panel on August 15 was hosted by franchise creator Tetsuya Nomura and co-director Tai Yasue, along with voice actors Haley Joel Osment (Sora), David Gallagher (Riku), and others . The panel provided developer insight into the new trailer and the creative direction of the upcoming projects .