Kingdom Hearts 3 Not Series’ End, Director Tetsuya Nomura Says Franchise Will Continue After KH3

Fans have eagerly awaited the arrival of Kingdom Hearts 3, the first console title in the series since Kingdom Hearts 2 in 2006. Tetsuya Nomura revealed the game's development at E3 2013, but he recently stated that KH3 may not be the end.

Nomura recently conducted an interview through a translator with the "Hero Complex" section of the Los Angeles Times and said that the notion of a Kingdom Hearts trilogy is inaccurate:

"There was never a plan," Nomura said. "As a core game, this is finally the third, and 10 years have passed. I couldn't call this a trilogy. There have been so many spinoffs. In Kingdom Hearts 3 the battles that the characters have been fighting for the past 10 years will come to a conclusion. That is the plan. But the series will continue. Only the particular enemy they have been fighting the past 10 years will come to an end."

That enemy is Master Xehanort, the devious mastermind who plans to pit thirteen vessels of darkness against seven pure lights to reach Kingdom Hearts and recreate the universe to his liking.

Disney has also changed as a company since the last true Kingdom Hearts console game. The company has acquired Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm, which has led many fans to fantasize about Sora, the game's protagonist, with a lightsaber Keyblade alongside Luke Skywalker or a battle alongside the X-Men or the Avengers.

Nomura would not divulge what has been confirmed for Kingdom Hearts 3 but said his relationship with Disney has been crucial to the series.

"What world is available for the title is an important question," Nomura said. "The story - it has to be great enough to meet the expectation of the fans. When that's ready, and I feel like I am ready, then the game can start. The counterpart that I've been working with at Disney the past 10 years is the same person. We have very heated discussions about this franchise, and we've done that for the past 10 years, but we have a steady relationship."

Nomura also said that he has used the gameplay of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, a Nintendo 3DS game from 2012, as a preliminary template for the gameplay of Kingdom Hearts 3.