One of the beauties of the Kingdom Hearts franchise is that the games have dipped deep into the realm of Disney in order to craft a plethora of game worlds that would allow the players to have fun while also interacting with their favorite Disney characters. Then, in Kingdom Hearts III, the game expanded its reach so that it included both Pixar properties, and recent Disney movies like Big Hero 6 and Frozen. But there were two major Disney exclusions that fans noticed were there: Star Wars and Marvel.
Granted, these aren’t “pure Disney”, but technically, neither is Pixar, that was an acquisition by them too. So, when Tetsuya Nomura did an interview with the Ultimania Book for Kingdom Hearts three, he noted that Star Wars and Marvel could appear in the future:
That’s right,” said the director, acknowledging that Lucasfilm and Marvel are both now Disney properties. “However, in order to change those [properties] into a game, contracts must be made with each company separately, and there are cases where other game companies already have contracts, so although the Disney Group has indeed added those [properties], incorporating them into Kingdom Hearts isn’t so simple.
He also was quick to note that this kind of thing has happened before, in the first Kingdom Hearts game in fact:
“That’s also the reason Mickey is in only one scene in Kingdom Hearts 1. At the same time, another company was releasing a game that had to do with Mickey, so though we were denied his usage, we persisted and eventually got “as long as you only have one scene, from far away, as a silhouette, with him waving his hand or something”. Since we had to make the best of the biggest [and only] chance we had, that’s why that scene appears that way.”
So hold fast Kingdom Hearts fans. Though Star Wars and Marvel weren’t in Kingdom Hearts III, that doesn’t mean they won’t be there in the future!
