Hayden Panettiere's death is a tragic end to Kingdom Hearts' best weekend in years
From celebration to tragedy, here's everything that happened this weekend for the Kingdom Hearts fans of the world
While the news from this weekend is exciting for anyone who has ever called themselves a Kingdom Hearts fan over the last 25 years, it's impossible to talk about without first addressing the tragic passing of Hayden Panettiere, who played a pivotal role in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2.
According to the Greenville County Coroner's Office in a press release shared today, Panettiere was found "unresponsive" in a state of cardiac arrest after EMS was dispatched to a residence she had been staying at short-term in Greenville, South Carolina on Sunday.
Panettiere was the English voice actress behind Kairi in the first two Kingdom Hearts games. She was also famous for shows such as Heroes and Nashville, as well as movies like A Bug's Life, the Scream franchise, and more. [Editor's note from Ryan: I can't let this get published without specifically mentioning that she's the lead in Supermassive's delightful Until Dawn horror game, and she absolutely crushes it].
We at Rogue wish Hayden's daughter, her family and friends, and her millions of fans around the world all the best in these difficult times. As Kairi once said:
Thinking of you, wherever you are.
Kingdom Hearts Announcements at D23
If you, like me, spent your time between 2004 and 2019 scrawling daily hash marks on your bedroom wall, waiting for the next "mainline" entry in the Kingdom Hearts saga, you probably knew that Kingdom Hearts IV was going to be at D23. Beyond just the previously announced "DEEP DIVE into KINGDOM HEARTS" panel, fans were treated to a few other surprises along the way.
Initially, we received a 90-second trailer during the Disney Entertainment Showcase on Friday night, revealing the first world outside of Quadratum: Pixar's Coco. The trailer shows us a glimpse of the game in its new and improved Unreal Engine 5, and the tech on display is a treat. The cutscene that kicks it off is a direct remake of the same scene in the film and it's difficult to tell the difference at first glance. Cut to some action, as we then get to see Sora himself in the Land of the Dead while donning a fitting Coco-inspired outfit. The work-in-progress gameplay looks just as beautiful as the cinematic from moments before.
Throughout the trailer, we get glimpses at fan-favorite characters returning such as King Mickey, the mighty mage Donald [Ed. note: who, fun fact, was the most powerful mage in the Final Fantasy universe until Final Fantasy 16 came out], the stalwart soldier Goofy, and the hateful Hades (voiced by the somehow even more hateful James Woods).
Even better, we received confirmation of a late 2027 release window for every major platform.
The next day, fans were treated to the "DEEP DIVE into KINGDOM HEARTS" panel, which included appearances from Nana Gadd, the director of Product Development at Disney & Pixar Games, Tai Yasue, Co-director on Kingdom Hearts IV, Haley Joel Osment and David Gallagher (the English voice actors for Sora and Riku, respectively), and Tetsuya Nomura, the creator of Kingdom Hearts, himself.
It was revealed during the panel that the trailer from the day before was a cut down version of a trailer more than twice as long with much more to showcase. In the full trailer, we get a first glimpse of gameplay where the player gets to take solo control of Mickey, Donald, and Goofy in their own levels (a first, kinda, for the series). King Mickey is working through trying to find a way to save Sora and, in studying everything he can, he creates Paper Mario like copies of himself. These levels introduce a blend of 2D and 3D platforming and puzzle solving that looks be to a big departure from the series' typical Action-RPG roots.
The Donald and Goofy levels seem to be a bit more traditionally Kingdom Hearts, with some traversal over streams of lava (think the Olympus level in Kingdom Hearts III) and waves of combatants to Zettaflare through. If you're a fan of what Kingdom Hearts has done in the past, this looks like a fun mix-up to that beloved formula.
Finally, the long-rumored Kingdom Hearts animated series has been announced. Kingdom Hearts (working title) will be coming to Disney Channel and Disney+, though a release window was not announced. It is actively being developed with input from the creative team at Square Enix, including the father of the franchise, Tetsuya Nomura.
According the Disney, the animated series "reimagines the iconic adventure with a brand-new story that will expand on the universe [...] while celebrating the characters that have captured the hearts of millions of fans around the world."
Kingdom Hearts IV will release late next year, and Tetsuya Nomura has already stated that it won't miss that window.
It'll be fun to see what other worlds are announced between now and then. Fingers crossed we finally get a Treasure Planet or Atlantis world. [Ed. note: The idea that the team that put the full length version of Frozen's Let It Go in Kingdom Hearts 3 would pander to the 90s kids with a world based on Michael J. Fox's epic bomb (which is peak) Atlantis, is delusional. But a Leviathan boss fight would go hard as hell, so I'd love to be wrong.]
