Kingdom Hearts (TV series)

Title card for Kingdom Hearts, as seen in the pilot episode.

Kingdom Hearts was a cancelled 2002 television series based on the game of the same name. It was set to be produced and written by Seth Kearsley.

The project was ultimately scrapped in favor of continuing the video game series.

Story

The series was based on the plot of the original Kingdom Hearts.

Pilot

An eleven-minute pilot episode was produced, based on the Agrabah chapter of Kingdom Hearts.

In the pilot episode, Jiminy Cricket provides the opening narration, explaining the nature of the worlds and the concept of heroes and introduces Sora as the hero of the story, before transitioning to Sora, Kairi, and Riku on the Destiny Islands. The islands are soon attacked, and Sora loses Kairi and Riku before waking up from his nightmare. Sora finds himself on the gummi ship and realizes he was dreaming of his friends and the attack on his home.

Meanwhile, Maleficent, Jafar, and Riku are gathered in Hollow Bastion. Maleficent tells Jafar that she needs the magic lamp to take over his world, and Jafar explains that she would need a "diamond in the rough". Annoyed with Jafar, she casts him out of the world and sends Riku to find this "diamond" and retrieve the lamp. Riku asks Maleficent if she will uphold her end of the deal and reunite him with his friends in exchange for this favor, and Maleficent promises she will.

As Sora, Donald Duck, and Goofy approach Agrabah, they discuss the Heartless, and Sora hesitates accepting the role of "hero". Goofy and Donald encourage him, reminding him that King Mickey believes in him and they do as well. Landing in Agrabah, Donald and Goofy begin to call for Riku and Kairi, dismissing Sora's request to be subtle. Soon, the Heartless attack and they begin to fight. Sora notices in the distance another figure fighting the Heartless, and realizes it's Riku. They team up and defeat the Heartless, and Riku tells them of the magic lamp inside the Cave of Wonders. The group arrives at the Cave of Wonders entrance, and the Cave guardian remarks that while Sora isn't who he was expecting, that he qualifies to enter.

They soon arrive in the lamp chamber, where Riku races and beats Sora to the lamp. As soon as he touches the lamp, the entrance to "the realm of the Heartless" opens, with Heartless emerging from the portal. Sora tells Riku to put the lamp down, but Riku aggressively rejects his suggestion, telling Sora that he is not a hero, but only a boy, and that the lamp is the only way to resolve their conflicts with the Heartless. Sora, hurt, counters Riku's claims and begins to fight the Heartless and grabs the lamp from Riku. Riku suddenly claims that he couldn't remember anything after touching the lamp, but while trying to convince Sora, a Darkside grabs Riku and pulls him through the portal.

Back in Hollow Bastion, Maleficent expresses her disappointment with Riku's failure. She asks him if Sora believes him, to which he replies affirmatively. Meanwhile, on the gummi ship, Sora explains that he didn't think exploring the worlds would be like this, but that he's ready to fight the Heartless wherever they go. Donald and Goofy explain that they will be by his side on his journey.

History and Development

Development of the series began sometime after the game's release in 2002. Disney Television Animation hired Seth Kearsley to direct an animatic as a pilot for the potential series. A cast list was developed, with most of the original cast set to return. A script and storyboards were created and the pilot animatic, titled "Agrabah", was produced around September 2003. At some point after the pilot was produced, the show was cancelled in favor of producing more titles in the main video game series.

In November 2013, Kearsley posted several storyboards on his DeviantArt account with a summary of the development of the show. In July 2014, Kearsley gave an interview with KHUnion's Branden Gonzalez about the cancelled show, which was published on YouTube. In 2017, Kearsley began to sell the original storyboards on his website.

Following a near fatal accident in January 2022, Seth Kearsley began to release additional information about the cancelled show. A cast list and a page from the script were released on September 29, 2022. The full eleven-minute pilot was released on October 11, 2022, on Seth Kearsley's YouTube channel. The pilot featured mostly storyboards and voice acting for all the speaking characters.