Kingdom Hearts IV's Next Reveal Could Be at D23

Kingdom Hearts IV is back in the conversation, and honestly, it feels different this time. A month ago, if you asked anyone whether Square Enix would show Kingdom Hearts IV at D23, most people would have laughed it off. The community was in a pretty dark place, waiting around with basically nothing to hold onto.

But then out of nowhere, a new teaser dropped at a Nintendo event, and just like that, the entire mood shifted. The hope is back, and now D23 is very much on the table. To be clear, this is not the same situation as when fans got a handful of still images and had to act like it was a major reveal. What just happened is genuinely significant.

Kingdom Hearts IV got its first new trailer in four years.

On top of that, a Kingdom Hearts collection is landing in October. That is a completely different energy than what the fandom has been sitting with for years now. Now, before you start putting all your faith into D23 rumors, there is something worth addressing. Some people online were claiming Kingdom Hearts IV would be shown at D23 even before the Nintendo reveal happened.

The problem with that is simple: if those same people supposedly knew about a D23 showing two months out, how did none of them catch that a trailer was about to drop within the same week? That gap in credibility is hard to ignore. Anyone throwing around insider claims before that Nintendo event probably does not have the sources they are pretending to have.

And that actually brings up one of the most impressive things about the recent Kingdom Hearts 4 reveal. Nobody saw it coming. Not the well-known industry reporters, not the reliable leakers, nobody. It was a completely genuine surprise, and that kind of moment is rare. When something actually lands without being spoiled ahead of time, it hits completely differently, and that is exactly what happened here.

So what about D23 specifically? Well, history actually does give Kingdom Hearts 4 fans a reason to be optimistic. Between 2013 and 2018, Kingdom Hearts showed up at D23 four separate times. In 2013, it was the very first gameplay trailer for Kingdom Hearts III. Then came the Big Hero 6 world reveal in 2015, the Toy Story world in 2017, and a musical reveal in 2018.

Four appearances across six years leading up to Kingdom Hearts III's release.

That kind of pattern is hard to dismiss when you are thinking about how Square Enix tends to build hype for these games. Of course, it has been eight years since any of that happened, and D23 is no longer an annual event. This year, it falls sometime around mid-August, and there is no guarantee it will run again next year.

That actually matters when you think about the timeline for Kingdom Hearts IV, because next year is a big anniversary year and Nomura has already hinted at major things tied to the Young Xehanort storyline. If D23 skips next year, then this August becomes the obvious window to use it.

There is also something that used to feel like a major obstacle that now seems a lot less relevant. For a long time, it seemed like Square Enix operated on a one-franchise-at-a-time basis, keeping Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts IV separate to avoid splitting attention or hurting sales.  But that idea basically fell apart when a Final Fantasy announcement came out of Summer Game Fest.

And then Kingdom Hearts IV showed up just four days later. Both fanbases got fed within the same week, and neither one seemed to suffer for it. That changes the calculus going forward. If both franchises can coexist in the same release window, then the fear of Kingdom Hearts IV stepping on Final Fantasy's toes might not be as real as people thought.

Looking ahead, showing off the first Disney world in Kingdom Hearts IV at D23 would make a lot of sense from a marketing standpoint.

D23 is a Disney event, and revealing a brand new Disney world there would land perfectly with that audience. After that, Square Enix could go quiet for a while. With the collection coming in October and Final Fantasy dominating early next year, there is a natural rhythm where Kingdom Hearts IV gets its D23 moment and then takes a back seat until the timing is right to push harder again.

If the game targets a late 2027 or early 2028 release, that pacing actually holds up pretty well. At the end of the day, Kingdom Hearts 4 at D23 went from feeling unlikely to feeling genuinely possible, and a lot of that is just momentum. The trailer reminded everyone why they care about this series, the collection is keeping things active in the fall, and the historical relationship between Kingdom Hearts and D23 is hard to ignore. It is not a guarantee, but the case for it is stronger now than it has been in years.