Kingdom Hearts 3 Toy Story world

Opinion: Disney worlds we’d like to see in Kingdom Hearts 4

Kingdom Hearts 4 has been officially confirmed, and with it comes a lot of speculation from fans about what Disney-themed worlds players will get to explore in the next game. With Disney’s recent acquisitions — including Marvel, Star Wars, and Fox — it seems almost anything is on the table.

We thought we’d go through the very long list of Disney intellectual property – including some you may not even know Disney owned – and come up with 10 worlds we’d like to see in Kingdom Hearts 4.

The life of a bug

For much of the Kingdom Hearts series, Pixar worlds seemed to be largely off limits. Kingdom Hearts 3 changed that with worlds based on Monsters Inc. and Toy Story and opened up a world of possibilities for future games. There is one Pixar film that stands above the rest as a candidate for inclusion in Kingdom Hearts 4: A Bug’s Life.

Kingdom Hearts 3 Toy Story world
Kingdom Hearts protagonist Sora shakes hands with Woody from Toy Story in Kingdom Hearts 3. The series has long been known for its Disney crossovers, with Pixar being added to the mix with the release of…


Square Enix

Just imagine: Sora and the gang turn into bugs, help defeat a heartless bird, and face the Darkness-infested Hopper. It just makes sense. Transforming worlds like Monsters Inc. and The Lion King are always the best and A Bug’s Life is one of Pixar’s best movies. Do it, Square Enix.

Star Wars

Two words: lightsaber key blade. I could leave it at that, but let’s expand on it. Disney’s acquisition of Star Wars led to a much larger amount of Star Wars media, between movies and TV shows, all of which expanded the world in new and interesting ways. That means there’s plenty to draw on for inclusion in Kingdom Hearts 4, whether it’s the classic Skywalker story or, say, The Mandalorian.

Star Wars already has a lot of the same notes as Kingdom Hearts. There’s a war between light and dark, magical powers granted to a select few who fight in this war, and fantastic weapons that are, frankly, cool as hell. Eagle-eyed fans think they’ve already seen hints of Star Wars in the Kingdom Hearts 4 teaser, so this one is the most likely. Also the lightsaber keyblade.

X-Men

Disney actually owns the entire Marvel Universe, so there are plenty of potential candidates for the world in Kingdom Hearts 4. Honestly, I was torn between Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the Guardians of the Galaxy, but I landed on the X-Men for a few key reasons.

The first is that the X-Men aren’t dependent on a real place like New York, because mutants can exist almost anywhere without a label. The second, and perhaps more important, reason is that X-Men is a little less grounded than other Marvel series and strays more often into the fantastical. It helps that the X-Men have such great characters to draw from, like Wolverine and Storm, all of whom would feel right at home in Kingdom Hearts.

Inside out

Inside Out is one of Pixar’s best films in years, and like Star Wars, it already hits a lot of the same notes as Kingdom Hearts. Emotions are tightly tied to the abilities of keyblade holders, with anger fueling dark magic and love and joy fueling light magic, so embodying these emotions and interacting with these keyblade holders is a neat angle that hasn’t been explored yet.

There’s even an enemy type from Birth By Sleep that feeds on negative emotions, The Unversed, so it makes sense for them to appear in an emotion-based world. With Inside Out 2 on the horizon, now is the perfect time for the world of the original film to appear in Kingdom Hearts.

Bob’s Burgers

Okay, look, hear me out – I don’t know if Disney owns Bob’s Burgers outright. Disney bought Fox’s entertainment assets and Bob’s Burgers is a Fox show, but tracking down who actually owns the IP is a nightmare. Either way, I understand that Bob’s Burgers is a silly proposition for the Kingdom Hearts world, but I actually think it can work.

Remember Atlantica in Kingdom Hearts 2? Instead of being a traditional combat-oriented world, it featured a number of rhythm minigames, which was quite fun. Bob’s Burgers has a lot of songs, and while some of them are a little harsh, there are plenty (especially from the movie Bob’s Burgers) that would fit with Kingdom Hearts. I know it’s a choice, but I’m also in love with the french fry keyblade idea, so I’m sticking with it.

Treasure planet

At this point, most of Disney’s 2D animated films were explored by Kingdom Hearts. There are a few that haven’t yet, but few of what’s left think they’re up to it. Treasure Planet, on the other hand, very much feels like it has the right vibes to be included in Kingdom Hearts 4.

Disney’s Treasure Planet is a fantastical re-imagining of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel Treasure Island, centered on space pirates who set out to track down a world full of treasure. Kingdom Hearts already did pirates and a few space worlds already did, so why not combine them? Plus, maybe it will help people realize how great Treasure Planet is. It’s a win/win.

Zootopia

I honestly don’t love Zootopia as a movie, but I’ll admit it would be a fantastic addition to the Kingdom Hearts 4 world series. Sora has been a fuzzy creature a few times now, first in the world based on The Lion King and then in the world based on Monsters Inc. so there is definitely precedent for an animal transformation protagonist.

Zootopia is also a pretty straight-forward story to put Heartless into, since the movie features a bunch of crazy predators that have been turned wild by a flower. Swap the flower for a Heartless-powered force of darkness and you have a story so obvious it’s surprising it didn’t already happen in Kingdom Hearts 3.

Muppets

Disney owning the Muppets is an absolute boon for Kingdom Hearts. First, he already usually uses a mixture of monster-like or animal-like puppets and humans, so a humanoid keychain holder mixed with Gonzo or Kermit the Frog doesn’t feel completely out of place.

There are several different Muppets stories to draw from as well. Maybe Kingdom Hearts is done with The Nightmare Before Christmas for its holiday adventures, so why not swap in The Muppets Christmas Carol? The recent Muppets Mayhem also presents an interesting, musically oriented idea, and Muppets From Space would really let Gonzo shine. There is a rich history of stories and characters to draw from, so take your pick.

Coconut

Coco is another Pixar movie that I think could play a really fantastic role in Kingdom Hearts 4. The Land of the Dead in the movie is kind of like the Underworld from Hercules that appeared in Kingdom Hearts 2, so I guess not very dark for Kingdom Hearts, all things considered.

Also, with how Kingdom Hearts 3 abandoned certain characters, the series will have to deal with death at some point. What better way to do that than with a Pixar movie that does just that? Coco’s visual aesthetic screams Kingdom Hearts outfits like Halloween Town or The Grid.

Cars

Look, I’ll be honest, this is by far the least serious suggestion on the list. I still picture Sora as the car from Cars and cracking. Imagine Donald and Goofy as vehicles? Donald would probably be an airplane, but Goofy would probably be some old guy in a VW Beetle or something.

I don’t know how this world would work. Maybe it’s just full of racing minigames like the Disney world in Birth by Sleep. Maybe Sora somehow fights enemies while in car form. Who knows. But as long as I’m laughing about it, I’ll think it’s a good idea.

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