Kingdom Hearts Animated Pilot Might Finally See Release

09/29/2022 08:14 pm EDT

Nearly 20 years ago, Disney produced a pilot for a Kingdom Hearts animated series, but the project never saw release. That could change in the near future, as executive producer Seth Kearsley has discussed the possibility of releasing the unfinished animatic online. Kearsley was in a near-fatal car accident earlier this year, and says that Kingdom Hearts "is one of those projects I would have been bummed if no one ever saw it." Kearsley will be releasing a video about the pilot next week, and after that he says "we'll see about dropping the pilot the week after." 

The Tweet from Kearsley about the potential release can be found embedded below.

It's clear Kearsley has a lot of passion for this Kingdom Hearts project! Kearsley still has to get the pilot digitized from the VHS he owns, which is why it won't be released for at least a couple weeks. It also remains to be seen whether there might be some legal hurdles that will prevent it from happening, including some of the music cues. The Kingdom Hearts series is in a very different place today than it was in 2003, so it would be interesting to see what elements are faithful to the first game, and how the narrative might deviate from the source material.

Interestingly enough, Kearsley also shared a cast list for the pilot, which does not contain Haley Joel Osment. The Sora voice actor apparently did not reprise his role due to a scheduling conflict. However, the pilot did feature several other voice actors that were able to return. The following actors were cast in the pilot:

• Bobby Edner- Sora
  
• David Gallagher- Riku
• Hayden Panitterie- Kairi
• Tony Anselmo- Donald Duck
• Bill Farmer- Goofy
  
• Susanne Blakeslee- Malificent
• Jonathan Freeman- Jafar
  
• Frank Welker- Cave of Wonders
  

If Kearsley can get this pilot released after all these years, he'll certainly make a lot of Kingdom Hearts fans happy! For now, we'll all just have to wait and see.

Would you like to see this pilot released? Are you disappointed that this project wasn't finished? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!

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