Kingdom Hearts 4’s New D23 Trailer Showcases Mickey Mouse in Action

We just got a deep dive into Kingdom Hearts 4 during the franchise’s D23 panel, featuring some exciting insights from the developers and an extended version of the latest trailer.

The panel kicked off with Tetsuya Nomura making a surprise appearance alongside co-director Tai Yasue, who answered questions about the franchise’s history and the process behind selecting Disney movies for adaptation. They showcased a four-minute extended trailer that revealed more cutscenes from Coco’s world and Sora’s battles against a new type of Heartless in Quadratum, along with some gameplay footage.

The extended trailer hints at segments in Kingdom Hearts 4 where players won’t control Sora. We see Donald and Goofy navigating Coco’s world and battling enemies independently, plus some platforming gameplay featuring Mickey Mouse. Mickey explores his own unique world, which Yasue described as having a “puzzle-based game design,” allowing players to transform into various sizes and shapes of origami Mickey, reminiscent of the exploratory elements found in Paper Mario games.

Sora remains a playable character, maintaining the series’ signature action-RPG combat style. However, he now teams up with characters beyond Donald and Goofy, including Hector and Miguel from Coco, as shown in the trailer. Sora also gains new traversal abilities, which were highlighted in the footage. Nomura teased that Kingdom Hearts 4 will incorporate a concept the team has been developing since Kingdom Hearts 3.

Voice actors Haley Joel Osment (Sora) and David Gallagher (Riku) took the stage to share their experiences voicing the characters, while Sora’s Japanese voice actor, Miyu Irino, appeared in a video to share similar reflections. Osment and Gallagher even performed the final scene from Kingdom Hearts 2 together live for the first time.

Kingdom Hearts 4 was first teased in 2022, but details remained scarce until earlier this year. It made a big splash as the closing highlight of June’s Nintendo Direct and was a major focus during Disney’s D23 showcase, where we learned about its 2027 release window and got a closer look at the world inspired by Pixar’s Coco.

The game is set to launch for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X in late 2027, with Yasue and Nomura confidently reaffirming that timeline during the panel. Additionally, a Kingdom Hearts anime for Disney Plus is in development, though it currently lacks a release window.

Now, about that Kingdom Hearts anime…