If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.
Tetsuya Nomura teases his involvement in new Kingdom Hearts anime – “Let your imagination run wild”
“What does this mean?” I find myself screaming at Tetsuya Nomura, which perfectly replicates the experience of playing every Kingdom Hearts game.
NewsbyTrent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer
Published on Tue Aug 18 2026
Popverse’s top stories
- Will Avengers: Doomsday see Doctor Doom get his hands on Thanos’s Infinity Gauntlet? A cryptic message from Robert Downey Jr. has us wondering
- Critical Role has (lovingly) tortured DM Matt Mercer for years. His Campaign 4 character is revenge
- Amazing Spider-Man #1000 will be “a really big blowout” that will kickstart” the next chapter” of the Marvel’s Spidey saga, says Joe Kelly
Even Disney is learning to respect the growing power of anime as a pop culture force; over the weekend, among the various announcements about new Marvel moviesand the live-action Tangled film, they dropped the news that a Kingdom Hearts anime was in development for Disney+, and it sounds like original creator Tetsuya Nomura will be involved in some way.
The announcement didn’t come with much information; along with an image of what looks like a grown-up Sora holding a keyblade, Disney said, “Ready for a new adventure? An original Kingdom Hearts anime series inspired by the beloved video game franchise is coming soon to Disney Channel and Disney+.”
We don’t have a release date for the Kingdom Hearts series, but it is interesting that Disney specifically referred to it as an anime rather than an animated series, which implies that it will at least have some involvement from Japanese staff or a Japanese animation studio. Kingdom Hearts series creator Tetsuya Nomura teased that he was involved in the new series alongside working on Kingdom Hearts 4 and Final Fantasy VII Remake’s third and final instalment.
“We can’t discuss all the details just yet,” Nomura said via the Japanese Kingdom Hearts social media page. “But I’ve been in close discussions with the scenario team, including myself, and when needed, we’ve also enlisted the art team’s cooperation, even creating multiple new character designs specifically for this project. I can’t say anything more right now, but the hint is in the single piece of key art that’s been revealed. Please let your imagination run wild while you await further updates.”
The message is obviously cryptic, considering how early in production the Kingdom Hearts anime seems to be. It left us with much the same sensation we get from playing the Kingdom Hearts games, which is general confusion yet a strong desire for more, so you could call it a success.
Each week, Popverse’s resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say “greatest,” in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included…
- Aggretsuko vs Chainsaw Man: Two Wildly different anine with the same anti-capitalist message
- The Summer Anime season return of Kaiju No. 8, Sakamoto Days, & Dan Da Dan are forcing me to break my vow of watching less anime
- From Tomo-Chan to Oshi No Ko: How some of your favorite manga creators got their start in hentai
- Piracy is baked into anime’s past, but, like Crunchyroll, we should move on from it
- Flying whales, mechs, and Miyazaki vibes: Inside Netflix’s Leviathan anime with the people who made it
- How AI translations of manga continues the ‘enshitification’ of the medium, and why Japanese publishers are “less precious” about it
- I never wanted a Cyberpunk Edgerunners sequel, but God help me I’m going to watch it
- The Summer Hikaru Died delivers its cosmic horror at an agonizingly slow pace
- The one thing that Dan Da Dan does better than Demon Slayer ever did
- Studio Ghibli movies have never been as cozy as you think they are and that’s what makes them magic
Follow Popverse for upcoming event coverage and news
Trent Cannon: Trent is a freelance writer who has been covering anime, video games, and pop culture for a decade. (He/Him)
Let Popverse be your tour guide through the wilderness of pop culture
Sign in and let us help you find your new favorite thing.
