One of the most popular Disney-themed video game franchises is Kingdom Hearts, which tells the story of the power of friendship as Sora and his friends embark on a perilous adventure. Set in a vast array of Disney and Pixar worlds, Kingdom Hearts follows the journey of Sora, a young boy and unknowing heir to a spectacular power.  Classic Disney characters, Donald Duck and Goofy join Sora to stop an evil force known as the Heartless from invading and overtaking the universe.

Through the power of friendship, Sora, Donald, and Goofy unite with iconic Disney-Pixar characters old and new to overcome tremendous challenges and persevere against the darkness threatening their worlds.  Over the years, the game has visited many different franchises, including “Toy Story”, “Pirates Of The Caribbean”, and “Tron”.

The first game was released on the PlayStation 2 in 2002, and since then, through multiple sequels and remakes, the franchise has sold over 36 million copies globally.

With the popularity of the video game series, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that there have been reports of Disney wanting to bring the franchise to our screens, with rumours of a Disney+ series being in development.

However, according to a recent report from The DisInsider, the plans to make a Disney+ series may have changed. Instead, the goal is now to make a theatrical release. However, nothing has been officially greenlighted. 

Apparently, Disney is more focused on building out its video game business rather than making games into movies, as both “Prince Of Persia” and “Need For Speed” failed to connect with audiences.  The recent success of “Super Mario Bros”, “Fallout”, “The Last Of Us”, and “Sonic” could be an incentive for Disney to explore the idea of a “Kingdom Hearts” movie. 

Disney CEO Bob Iger also recently talked about how the company has realised that audiences are spending much more time playing video games than ever.  Disney also recently announced a major investment in buying 10% of Epic Games, which is behind the smash-hit game, “Fortnite”. 

One of the biggest problems with the “Kingdom Hearts” franchise is that over the last twenty years, the story has become very complicated; I’ve played through almost every game and still haven’t a clue about what the story is about.  So, the story would need to be drastically simplified to attract the general audience, but this might backfire on the franchise’s fans.

Most of the “Kingdom Hearts” games are often very long in length, taking an average of twenty-five hours to compete, visiting different Disney worlds, while also developing new original characters; trying to squeeze even just one game into a two-hour movie would be difficult, which is why a Disney+ series might have worked easier, but again, it’s important to note, nothing has been officially announced.

Would you like to see a “Kingdom Hearts” movie?  Let us know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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