Disney has confirmed that Kingdom Hearts will have a major presence at D23 this year, and while the panel is officially framed as a celebration of the series’ 25th anniversary, many fans are already treating it as the next likely venue for Kingdom Hearts 4 news.

The panel listing appeared on the official D23 website and was later spotted by Gematsu. Disney describes the session as a deep dive into the franchise’s history, but the timing is hard to ignore. Kingdom Hearts 4 finally resurfaced in June with a polished new trailer after years of silence, complete with gameplay and updated visuals. You can watch that trailer below:

Square Enix hasn’t announced a release date yet, but the latest footage suggests the project is now far into its development cycle, so there is hope that the game could be launching sometime in 2027.

While D23 isn't a gaming focused event, it has had its gaming-focused moments in recent years. In particular, the event has been used to make major announcements regarding new Star Wars games, like Star Wars Jedi Survivor and the upcoming strategy title, Star Wars Zero Company.

KitGuru says: After years of waiting, Kingdom Hearts 4 is finally starting to feel real. I wouldn't be too hopeful for any major news about it at D23, but we may get something out of it. 

We were all pretty disappointed when Square Enix only brought cloud versions of the Kingdom Hearts games to Nintendo Switch. The company is making things right on Switch 2 though, with a new collection packaging together native versions of all the mainline games. On top of that, Square Enix has finally released the first full trailer for Kingdom Hearts 4. 

As part of the Nintendo Direct today, Square Enix showed a new trailer for Kingdom Hearts 4, giving us a much bigger look at the game compared to previous teasers. In the fourth game, the story takes place in the real-world for the first time, with the trailer showing a slightly older Sora battling a shadow demon in the middle of a busy city.

Unfortunately, the trailer did not include a release date or even a release window for Kingdom Hearts 4, but we do know that it will be available on Switch 2 at launch, alongside other platforms. Given the lack of even a 2027 window, we would guess that Kingdom Hearts 4 won't be out until at least 2028.

In the meantime, Switch 2 players can finally play native versions of the complete series, all available as a single Kingdom Hearts I-III bundle, collecting the remastered versions of the original games, along with Kingdom Hearts 3 and its DLC.

KitGuru Says: I wasn't expecting to see Kingdom Hearts 4 today but here we are. What did you think of the new trailer? 

While today's Nintendo Direct was stuffed mostly with ports of games previously released elsewhere and a few new titles and DLC updates sprinkled in between, it capped off with a couple of major reveals. One was the expected reveal of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake, while the other was another look at Kingdom Hearts 4 after years of silence, alongside a reveal that the rest of the series will make its way to Nintendo Switch 2 in one jam-packed collection. Kingdom Hearts 4 was first announced back in 2022, and since then we've barely seen any updates […]

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