New Kingdom Hearts 4 Screenshots Make It Seem Like This Character Will Now Be Playable

Following the cancellation of Kingdom Hearts Missing Link, the team behind the critically acclaimed series has taken to X (formerly Twitter) to share new images of the next mainline entry in the franchise: Kingdom Hearts IV. Presented as a collage and without any context, it's hard to interpret too much from the images. However, the forth image in the set seems to indicate that none other than King Mickey himself will be a playable character in the game's next chapter.

Aside from the picture our chandelier-swinging monarch, the folks at Square Enix didn't give us much to mull over with these images. That said, the sheer look of the game--particularly in images four, six, and seven--has left us even more eager to get our hands on it.

Kingdom Hearts IV does not currently have a release window, though Square Enix has assured fans that it is "currently working hard" on the title. Following Missing Link's cancellation, it is now the next Kingdom Hearts title scheduled to release.

Prior to its cancelation, Missing Link was meant to help ease the waiting period between 2019's Kingdom Hearts III and the next chapter of Sora's story. The mobile game was described as a "GPS-based action RPG," and was said to connect to the events of Kingdom Hearts IV. As for why Square Enix cancelled the project, the team offered the following explanation:

"Although we worked hard on developing and adjusting the game in the hope that it would be enjoyed by lots of players, we determined that it would be difficult for us to offer a service that players would find satisfactory over a long period of time, leading us to the decision to cancel development."

With Summer Game Fest 2025 just around the corner, here's hoping we hear a bit more about what the Kingdom Hearts team has cooking soon.