Kingdom Hearts the animated series almost happened

When Kingdom Hearts released in 2002 it was immediately clear to Square and Disney that they had a hit on their hands. In that same year Disney started work on a pilot based off the first game that would hopefully lead to a television series. While this project had been heavily rumored for over ten years it was Seth Kearsley who was heavily involved with this project that proved it’s existence when he uploaded a story board he drew for the pilot on his Deviantart page.

This story board is from an episode that would feature Sora, Donald, and Goofy visiting Agrabah. Riku is also visiting this world at the same time on a mission for Maleficent. Seth played through the entire first game when he started the project and his love for the game really shows in these few boards he drew. Also since he was working with Disney at the time he was allowed to use the original art used in the movie Aladdin for backgrounds.

While the pilot tested extremely well, the project was cancelled before anything else could come from it. This was due to the fact Square had already started planning more titles in the Kingdom Hearts series and the creators of the series thought that the animated series might confuse the audience. This story board may also be the most we ever see about this project since Disney isn’t known for releasing their unfinished pilots.

This news comes from the Kingdom Hearts Union podcast who interviewed Seth and talked about the history of this project. Be sure to listen to it here to hear more interesting details from Seth’s time working on the project as well as what he would do with it now if the opportunity came again.

How would you feel about a Kingdom Hearts animated series coming back and how would you like them to do it? Let us know your ideas for a Kingdom Hearts animated series in the comments below

 


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Spencer Pressly

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