If Kingdom Hearts 4’s World Leak is True, Square Enix is…

One of the most thrilling aspects of any Kingdom Hearts game is the crossovers it features with multiple worlds players traverse to interact with iconic characters from beloved franchises. Kingdom Hearts worlds include Winnie-the-Pooh’s 100 Acre Wood , Hercules’ Olympus, Monsters, Inc.’S Monstropolis, and the Toy Story-inspired Toy Box, among others. Between Disney and Square Enix, this collaboration has proven incredibly fruitful. It will now be fascinating to see which worlds all make the cut in Kingdom Hearts 4, with the real-life Tokyo-inspired hub world of Quadratum confirmed and many other worlds supposedly leaked recently.

Any and all leaks should be taken with copious amounts of salt. But, if legitimate, what doesn’t appear in this leaked list from an alleged Square Enix “insider” and originally reported by Vice is as interesting as what does. Excluded from the likes of The Incredibles, Wreck-It Ralph, and Zootopia, there’s one indomitable heavy-hitter that Kingdom Hearts 4 perhaps either couldn’t include, didn’t want to include, or decided to preserve, while another equally immense Disney franchise possibly steals the show.

Marvel Could Be Kingdom Hearts 4’s Biggest Flex, But It Doesn’t Seem Likely

Quite notably, Marvel is nowhere to be seen in the long laundry list of leaked Kingdom Hearts 4 worlds. Nothing has suggested that Marvel will have a world in Kingdom Hearts 4, to be fair, but it doesn’t seem like it’d necessarily be out of the realm of possibility with nearly every other Disney property being on the table. Assuming that the leaked list is correct, there are at least a couple of valid reasons why Kingdom Hearts 4 may not have a Marvel world:

Marvel, and particularly the MCU, is an enormous franchise and may be one of the few that can overshadow all other Disney crossover worlds around it. In this case, Kingdom Hearts 4 avoiding Marvel may be in its best interests so that other worlds have their time in the sun.
The MCU isn’t nearly as ubiquitously adored today as it was a decade ago, with many polarizing and divisive entries, which would make it a rather tough pill to swallow regarding the cameos of some characters if the MCU was chosen as the Marvel adaptation Kingdom Hearts 4 would feature and not simply the Marvel comic book universe more generally.
Perhaps Square Enix wishes to explore Marvel with undivided attention in Kingdom Hearts 5, where it’d maybe be able to wield it as a centerpiece.

Thanos fighting Iron Man in Avengers: Infinity War

Kingdom Hearts 4 could undoubtedly be molded into a Marvel Easter egg celebration where ravenous Marvel fans are suddenly flooding into a Square Enix series they know little to nothing about, and thus shying away from something that colossal might be in its favor. Rather, with Star Wars both potentially teased in an official capacity and making it onto this leaked list, the argument that Marvel could be too big a franchise to include may hold no weight.

Kingdom Hearts 4 Doesn’t Need to Get Greedy if It Already Boasts Star Wars

A Star Wars world hasn’t been outright confirmed for Kingdom Hearts 4. However, Kingdom Hearts 4’s 2022 announcement trailer may have teased a Star Wars world, or at least seems to have, with one enigmatic glimpse of a forest that looks strikingly like Star Wars’ forest moon, Endor.

Therefore, Star Wars is perhaps the safest bet to actually be featured in-game out of the list’s leaks. Kingdom Hearts 4 may not be large enough to harbor both Star Wars and Marvel, Disney’s two biggest titans, though.

Having Star Wars and Marvel would be fascinating from the perspective of a Disney fan, as they potentially get to interact with Yoda in one world and then Spider-Man in another, but the Disney side would arguably eclipse anything Square Enix or Kingdom Hearts-related as a result.

It might make more sense to give Marvel its world in a future Kingdom Hearts game, so that it isn’t competing for players’ curiosity against Star Wars. Regardless, neither Star Wars nor Marvel has been confirmed, whether that’s a confirmation of it being featured or not, and it’ll likely be some time still before it’s discovered if the leaked list of worlds is accurate.

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