WMG / Kingdom Hearts III

Real Organization XIII Speculation

Ansem The Wise is one of Xehanort's vessels

If you look at the flashbacks in Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, you can notice that his ears are rounder and his eyes are darker. As DiZ, his skin appears to be the same tone as Xehanort's Heartless, and his eyes and ears are closer to Xehanort's other vessels.

• Additional: As Days proves, the Vessels don't necessarily know they're becoming vessels. And isn't it just coincidence that DiZ's revenge plan happened to reawaken the darkness in Riku? And that his order to bring Roxas in just happened to be when Roxas was going to lay siege to Organization XIII? And where did he get that Black Coat Aqua found him in, again?
• Jossed.

Ansem The Wise is to Master Xehanort as Ventus is to Vanitas

Ansem The Wise was the benevolent scientist/leader of Radiant Garden and was never known to use people as tools or abuse his apparent power. Master Xehanort sees EVERYONE as nothing more than tools to bring about another Keyblade War and thereby fulfill what he assumes are the necessary conditions to forge a χ-blade, and he has no qualms about taking whatever steps he deems appropriate to ensure he reaches his desired end. When they were reunited, even with Terranort's amnesia, he was much calmer and less of a Jerkass. Similar is known to have happened with Ventus and Vanitas. One an innocent boy who just wants to be acknowledged by his peers, the other said boy's darkness given human form, and we know Vanitas' grief and ill feelings got worse the longer he was apart from Ventus. It's entirely possible, however unlikely, that Master Xehanort is the dark half of Ansem the Wise.

• Jossed.

Marluxia is one of the Thirteen

Xigbar and Saix are two of Xehanort's bodies and they weren't seen with the resurrected other members so he could be a vessel as well for Master Xehanort. Either he made him into one as punishment for what he tried to do in Castle Oblivion or he offered it to him and he accepted.

• Seconding Marluxia: Young Xehanort, as the Mysterious Figure, used several of Marluxia's signature moves, and his battle theme even incorporated part of Marluxia's Leitmotif. This points to a significant connection between Xehanort and Marluxia.
• On the other hand it's also possible that Marluxia didn't appear there because he didn't become a Heartless/Nobody there, or maybe he wasn't restored seeing how apparently nobodies only return to their original forms if their heartless was killed first, and the Grim Reaper, which is probably Marluxia's heartless was destroyed after him.
• I'd say it's worth having Nort-luxia simply so we can fight him again. If his new moveset had both his Re: Chain of Memories and KH2 Final Mix+ abilities, that would be one hell of a battle.
• Xehanort himself said he wanted a new Organization that didn't have any "doubting" or "incompetent" members, so I think the traitorous Marluxia or the wimpy Demyx won't fit into his new Org. OTOH, those heartless in the Tangled world in the new trailer did make me think of Marly a lot...So, possibly this'll make his return. Is he in cohorts with Gothel? Is he atoning for his past sins? Time will only tell...
• By "those Heartless in the Tangled world", I'm assuming you mean the scythe-wielding enemies? Those are Nobodies, not Heartless.
• A lot of the Heartless in the Tangled World are plant-based, which would further support the theory that he might cause trouble, possibly working with Gothel.
• In regards to recent goings-on in Union Cross, if Lauriam was the one to kill Strelitzia and usurp her position in the new Union leaders, all this focus could hint to Marluxia actually being a contender.
• Confirmed in he D23 Expo. Marluxia remembers Sora vividly, but none of the three heroes remember him at all.
• Still, the D23 expo may be result of Marluxia being locked out of loop and still thinking original Organisation exists. Also, he doesn't have evil gold eyes like Braig, Isa and other Xehanorts or vessels have.
  • The lack of gold eyes may have been an editing mistake, as the Japanese version of one of the E3 trailers shows Marluxia with gold eyes.
  • If any doubt remained, he is indeed one of the True Organization.

Luxord is a vessel

He's Nomura's favorite Nobody, after all. And let's not forget that his specialty is time manipulation, which is something that Xehanort is getting a kick out of.

• Seconded: One of Xehanort’s chess pieces in the E3 trailer looks like a pair of dice, which points towards Luxord.
• Confirmed as of E3 2018. Luxord appears with Xehanort's golden eyes, indicating he is now one of his vessels.

Disney villains will become part of the Organization

I don't think I need to explain.

• No... one... 'Norts like Gaston?
• Prince Hans from Frozen
• Scar, Turbo, and Frollo would be good candidates. All three of them have so much darkness in their hearts. Scar didn't need to possess anyone to keep his physical form, Turbo would be able lo hide the fact that he's half Xehanort already by his King Candy disguise, and we know Frollo is just pure evil. Yes, they're too arrogant to really submit to anyone, let alone let someone else be the leader. But Isa was implied to have been brainwashed, proving that Xehanort is perfectly willing to force people into his Thirteen Darknesses if he thinks they're worthy. Scar could be mutated into a bipedal lion of sorts, like a Nortified lion as fan-art has often done.
• Evanora could be one if Xehanort doesn't mind the implications. She doesn't look like she's "Half Xehanort already" because she is hiding her true appearance using her necklace. When the necklace comes off, it's obvious that she's already half Xehanort, with the Recusant sigil being in plain sight. At first she tried to make Glinda into a recusant, but when that failed, turned to Theodora... and Xehanort, being Xehanort, decided that since Glinda couldn't be a recusant, she could be one of the seven lights since she would be more than happy to join the fight against Evanora for what she did to Theodora.
  • I personally think live action characters of either gender are unlikely, but if you think Xehanort wouldn't have a problem with a female vessel, what about Lady Tremaine?
    • Why should being live action matter? We've already seen worlds based off of Pirates Of The Caribbean and TRON: Legacy. At any rate, the only reason to go back to the Castle of Dreams would be to play out one of the Cinderella sequels, which would have little meaning to Sora (since he never saw Cinderella's life on her world, barely spoke to her, and could just as easily assume that was supposed to be her life), and would defy 3D's laws of time travel.
    • How would Tremaine being a vessel defy the laws of time travel? There's no evidence (in the original film or the Kingdom Hearts series)that destiny had anything to do with Cinderella marrying prince Charming. Evanora is unlikely because live action characters would look extremely out of place outside their own worlds.
• Hiro From Big Hero 6. When the scene where they find out that Callaghan is Yokai, a common fan idea is what would have happened if Hiro had put on the mask instead of ripping out Baymax's chip. KH will instead go down that route and Hiro will become one of the thirteen Seekers.
  • I would hate that so much if that happened. So would Ryan Potter.
  • Jossed. The Big Hero 6 world apparently takes place after the events of the movie, so Hiro is still a...well, hero.
  • That said, there's another candidate from Big Hero 6: Yokai/Professor Callaghan. He's got the Black Cloak deal down already, he has the same combat potential as Hiro-nort would have (both would presumably use microbots), he's still alive after the events of the movie, and he even has grey hair (the fact that he's older and it could be natural just makes it easier to hide being a Xehanort host). Sure, with his daughter safe, he has no motivation to become a villain again, but who said he had to join Xehanort willingly?
• Syndrome would be a perfect candidate, as well as a good way to introduce Pixar worlds.
• The Horned King. After all, he's an incredibly dark villain from one of Disney's darkest films.
• This whole WMG is Jossed.

One or more new Original Generation characters will be a part of Xehanort's XIII

• This includes any alternate form of Xehanort that has yet to be introduced.

Young Xehanort is NOT one of the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness.

• Keep in mind that this was him before he embraced the darkness meaning he should still be aligned with Light. Not only that but in the end of Dream Drop Distance when we see the thirteen gather then all the thrones are taken while Young Xehanort is still standing in the middle. My guess is that he is just the gatherer of the thirteen but not a part of them. As such I think there is a good chance that Sora is one of the thirteen, whether he wants to or not.
  • Fansite KHInsider interviewed Ben Diskin, Young Xehanort's voice actor, shortly after Dream Drop Distance's international release. Interestingly, he noted that when reading, he actually received the direction to make his voice less evil and brooding and more flat and ambiguous, for the same reason as OP listed first—this is a younger version of Xehanort, yes, but at this point he hasn't fully chosen Darkness or Light yet.
  • He appears sitting on one of the thrones very briefly when all the Xehanorts start to fade. Right after Xigbar but before Saix. Before that while he's still talking to Riku the panning shot of all the cloaked figures only shows ten making thirteen in including Young Xehanort, Master Xehanort and Sora/Aqua. He might still not appear in the next game though as he said he had to return to his own time but it looks like he was definitely intended to be a Seeker of Darkness for this particular gathering.
  • Mostly likely Jossed. The D23 2017 trailer revealed that he will appear in the Toy Story world, studying "the way hearts connect in that world" to "reclaim a darkness they [The Seekers] are missing". If he is not one of the Seekers, he is at least still working for them.
  • Confirmed to be Jossed, not only is he part of the True Organization, he is one of its leaders.

Sephiroth is/will be one of Xehanort's vessels.

As noted elsewhere, he is the only other person in the series that invokes the White Hair, Black Heart trope, so might as well get him in there too. Maybe getting part of Xehanort's spirit will be his version of being part of JENOVA.

• Unlikely - the incarnation of Sephiroth that appears within the Kingdom Hearts series is specifically noted to be the incarnation of Cloud's inner darkness instead of having the same backstory as the game he appears in.
• Jossed.

In the event of a Bravely Default crossover

Airy would be a vessel. She already has the White Hair going as well as a tendency for her wings to change and incorporate symbols so an X would be within the realm of possibility

• Jossed.

Replica Riku is one of Xehanort's darknesses.

This is very likely. Not only did a cloaked Riku appear inside Monstro (just before getting the chronicle for Chain of Memories) but way back in Chain Of Memoris Repliku *absorbed Zexion's darkness*. He easily could have unknowingly saved Zexion from becoming a vessel and made himself one by mistake.

• If we take time travel into account, then that could just as easily be the real Riku, snatched from before he let Ansem possess him and long before his resulting Heel–Face Turn. In addition, either of these theories would explain the "fake" Riku you encounter in the first game if you wait to complete Monstro until after you finished Hollow Bastion. And they say Nomura doesn't plan these things in advance...
• Except before Ansem possessed him Riku did not have enough darkness in him (he only truly let the darkness in when he was possessed). Vessels seem to need either a lot of susceptibility to darkness or be empty shells that cannot fight off Xehanort’s influence.
• Not to mention that most of Repliku's scenes (before being whacked with Fake Memories courtesy of Namine) were him hamming it up with how he wasn't scared to indulge in the Darkness (with Ansem commenting that Riku should be more like him, which considering he wanted a vessel then Repliku could do). Not to mention in Repliku's entry in 3D it mentions that he "Seemingly died".
• With the D23 trailer, it's possible that Repliku is the "missing darkness" that Young Xehanort speaks of.
• Replica Riku might already be a Xehanort, if when Vexen copied Riku's data to create Replica Riku, he also copied Ansem who was in Riku's heart at the time. So maybe Replica Riku has a Replica Ansem in his heart.
• Mostly confirmed, though the logistics are a bit tricky.

Xehanort will get to Ven before the heroes do

After all, with Sora still (unintentionally) withholding Ven's heart from his body, there's nothing to stop them from finding Ventus and using him as another vessel. Well, except Castle Oblivion itself, but nothing More Dakka and a few cure spells won't fix.

• While Ven is a potential 13th Seeker, Xehanort could not get to him with More Dakka. If it was possible to brute force it, Xemnas would have done so already. Castle Oblivion will only reveal the Chamber of Waking to Aqua.
  • You mean the same Aqua that apparently is now a vessel?. DAMN, that's a master move. They need to change the name of Xanatos Gambit to Xehanort Gambit, if this really is the case.
    • Aqua was corrupted by the Realm of Darkness, so it's effectively impossible for Xehanort to use her.
• The Tokyo Game Show 2018 trailer does seem to show Vanitas inside the castle of the restored Land of Departure...
• Jossed.

Zidane Tribal will be one of the thirteen darknesses.

Zidane was created as a living weapon by Garland. Even though he's a good guy when acting of his own free will, Xehanort manipulating him into being the Angel of Death he was intended to be is well within the realm of possibility, especially given that Xehanort has already tried to corrupt Sora. Plus, it would give them an excuse to recruit Bryce Papenbrook to add to their list of Celebrity Voice Actors.

• Jossed.

Kuja will be one of the thirteen darknesses.

Bonus points if this overlaps with the above.

• Jossed.

No Heart is one of the thirteen darknesses and is a Xemnas possessed Terra.

After Ansem and Xemnas were slain they obviously merged back into one yet Master Xehanort is his old self again so in all likelihood Xehanort extracted his heart from Terra and Xemnas's body leaving Xemnas's heart to take over and since Terra has Darkness in his heart Xemnas is able to use it to fill up the emptiness inside his own heart while giving him immense powers over Darkness which is what we see during the No Heart battle in Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep. Whether he is loyal to Xehanort or The Starscream is unknown.

• jossed. No Heart is Xehanort's keyblade armor. Xemnas was using it during the final battle in II. No Heart is to xehanort as Armor Of The Master is to eraqus.

Alternatively No Heart is the sixth Foreteller and is secretly possessing Xehanort's Keyblade.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix reveals that Xehanort's Keyblade has a will of it's own and No Heart can't be targeted while the Keyblade isn't attached not to mention the Keyblade having an animal theme and the blue eyed Keychain like all Foretellers have... No Heart will be the Final Boss of Kingdom Hearts III

• "Rushu" possibly Luxu or Luxu is indeed wielding the Ramshead Keyblade that Xehanort will wield. No sign of possession, so far.
• Jossed.

Alternatively No Heart is the the Foretellers' master and Maleficent.

Maleficant mentioned intrest in the prophetic tomes given to the Foretellers and has an interest in claiming the Datascape because she thinks it would help her rewrite the tomes for her own purposes. Also should be mentioned is that Xehanort's Keyblade is called the oldest so what if Maleficant not only created the prophetic tomes fortelling the Light's destruction and the rise of Darkness(something she wants), sent them through time alongside herself yet also invented the Keyblade in imitation of the χ-blade. It would explain why Xehanort's Keyblade is so similar to her own design...

• But Maleficent did not know about Kingdom Hearts or other worlds until Master Xehanort told her about them. And even then she only knew the incomplete method involving the Princesses of Heart. If she made Keyblades and the Book of Prophecies would have her own Keyblade and would not have lost the Book (or for that matter talk about it like it was legend).
• Jossed on it being Maleficent. The Master of Masters is the one who created both the prophetic tome and Xehanort's Keyblade.

Krux is one of the Thirteen.

Seriously the guy has so many similarities with Xehanort it is hard not to think him as one. Both where former master of their trade that got consumed by their ambitions.

• Jossed.

Kairi is a vessel

Before the logic of this is called into question, it's not the current Kairi. It's Kingdom Hearts one Kairi, whose body was literally heartless for a good majority of it and thus prime vessel material for the same reason as Ventus. An empty body with no heart and (mostly, especially compared to Ven) unguarded is basically a free vessel, and it's doubtful someone like Xehanort would pass that opprotunity up.

• The downside to this is that Kairi is a natural Princess of Heart, not an artificial one like Ventus, which means she may possess an immunity to darkness like Riku does, which would make her worse than useless as a Xehanort vessel. On the other hand, this would explain why Naminé can use dark portals even though she's the nobody of someone with zero darkness in her heart.
• Jossed.

Braig and Xigbar are two separate incarnations of Master Xehanort

My only evidence is the outfits. In Kingdom Hearts 2.5 secret ending, it is implied the events in this clip took place before Dream Drop Distance. Braig's original self is in his uniform. This seems to contradict the Real Organization XIII reveal scene, as Xigbar is present in his nobody attire. This suggests that this is a time traveled nobody of Braig, instead of the Braig's original self.

• Not only Jossed, but Braig/Xigbar has an identity no one expected. Luxu.

Garland is one of the vessels.

Garlands plan in Final Fantasy seems fairly similar to what Xehanort is up to.

• The only problem with this is how would he get his helmet under the hood?
  • The hood is Bigger on the Inside.
• Jossed.

Xehanort has more than Thirteen Darknesses.

How can the Xehanorts gathered at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3D be the Thirteen in Kingdom Hearts 3 if some of them were displaced by time travel and can now no longer travel? Simple, Xehanort has replacement Vessels ready in the present. The ones we don't know the identities of could be part of the main Thirteen but Ansem, Xemnas, Xigbar, Saix, and Young Xehanort can't be because they no longer exist in the present.

• But if so then why would he need Sora? In DDD, he explicitly only had 12 Darknesses, which was why he wanted Sora. Obtaining Sora if he already had enough would be redundant (and would limit the possible numbers of Guardians of Light needed to fight against him with no benefit).
• OP here. I should have elaborated more. The extras are back ups just in case something goes wrong. While the plan was to make Sora a Xehanort, it failed so he'll use one of his back ups. The same goes for the Xehanorts that had to return to their own times. Although this raises the question of how Xehanort planned to execute his plan to forge the X-Blade if his past selves were going to return to their own times anyway.
• But that’s just it, why would he need the Sora plan if he had backups? Xehanort may be Crazy-Prepared, but if he had 13 already then there was no reason to try and get Sora, which would only serve to rob him of a potential Light. What could possibly go wrong if he had what he needed already? If he wanted to make Sora a backup that would be one thing, but they specifically said they wanted to make Sora the 13th and that they only had 12 members. The entire plan for Sora, and all of the complications involved would be a huge waste if he didn’t need Sora (or at the very least thought Sora was a good choice but has backup plans to create another Darkness).
  • Sora's not a potential Light; the Princesses of Heart are the 7 Lights, Sora's one of the 7 protectors, and Xehanort's fine with reducing their numbers, it saves him the trouble of dealing with them later (Xehanort notes gleefully that they're three protectors down, as he didn't know about Lea, he already had Terra and was about to make Sora another vessel).
• Except Xigbar and Saix could still very likely be actually there in the present. We don't know which they are. They could have been reformed as Braig and Isa. Master Xehanort himself, who we know for a fact is reformed, vanished along with everyone else.
• There are more than 13 Seekers, but they are reserves (Vexen and Demyx).

The 13 Seekers of Darkness cannot die, because loophole abuse will occur for the rules of time travel

• While ther is technically no such thing is death in Kingdom Hearts. this does sound right. So long as there is one person who exists in the future none of the Seekers can rejoin kingdom hearts because they are still part of Xehanort's heart and thus tied to the realm of light.
• Jossed, due to the mechanics of how most were brought back, though Young Xehanort does at the very least abide by the "cannot die" protection.

The people in Sora are kinda a foil to the new Organization 13

In a sense Sora have people in him such as Ventus, Roxas, and Xion. This may have the effect of making Sora's heart bigger. In contrast Xehanort spreads his heart around to make more minions and imposing his will on others making his heart smaller probably.

Also Sora should find some way of letting his small "army" of his out along with maybe Namine. Otherwise it would be him against parasite infected members (unless they become genre savvy they may attack Sora and co one by one like the previous organization)

Steve Rogers is one of the Thirteen

The recent movies have been playing up the fact he is an old warrior, who's seen so much crap and just wants it to end, to the point of maybe being a death seeker. for Civil War and AoU his life is in utter chaos. And while he has a good heart, a strong heart, and very empathetic, that can easily be turned against him, or used for false means.

He's not going to be very discerning right now, other matters are taking preference. And Xehanort can just slip into his life. A new SHIELD friend, an ally out in the field. Someone who's dreams of knowledge and peace are not too far from what Steve wants, and he doesn't hear the cost until the hooks are already into him.

Plus as he has had no contact with the KH saga before, unlike the rest he won't be on guard against corruption by Nobodies, the Norts, etc.

With Big Hero 6 coming in, it will take the place of a "Super hero" world, but the Marvel universe is too big to ignore. Something has to make it in. And if they don't come in as summons, imagine the shock at seeing Steve Rogers with a Norted appearance.

• Jossed.

Terra is one of Xehanort's vessels.

• Or Xehanort used the slave crown to bring her under his control.
• Jossed.

Both Xigbar and Braig are part of the new Organization

Based on the 2.5 secret ending, it seems he's achieved time-travel and managed to split into different versions of himself, just like MX. Either that or he can change into his different identities at will. Or maybe they'll just fuse together into one whole being that takes elements from both (Xibraig?).

• Jossed, just Xigbar alone.

Xemnas and Ansem aren't part of the new Organization

Ansem tSoD can't be a vessel because he's just Master Xehanort's heart at an earlier point. Similarly, Xemnas can't be destroyed twice and didn't have a heart when he was killed in KH2. Those two and Young Xehanort were just at the 'gathering' of the seekers to give us some recognizable faces (and because YX was given the role of assembling the group) and rubbing it in to Riku that they've been stringing him and Sora along throughout the entire game. The three spots they took, and the spot Sora was going to take, are going to be 'surprises'.

• Jossed, both are leading members.

Optional Boss fights will include Data Copies of the Foretellers.

Possibly including the 6th and the Master of Masters.

The Foretellers are part of Organization XIII-2

Luxu is going to turn all five foretellers into seekers of darkness, starting with Ava. Luxu will join the new organization. They are the six vessels whose identities weren't revealed at the time. If beings from time periods are part of the organization then so to are the Foretellers.

• Jossed. Although Luxu is a part of them True Organization XIII...

Each version of Xehanort will have a Keyblade

Makes sense really, they're all him, once the Nortification process completes. But as he's technically possessing all of them, they won't have Keyblades unique to themselves, but instead Keyblades in the same vein as the one Young Xehanort used after his older self possessed him, a mix of his primary weapon (the energy swords) and Luxu's Keyblade.

• Jossed, all use their typical weapons.

The Master of Masters and/or Luxu will be a member

The Master of Masters is Ambiguously Evil, he's the only character outside of the vessels that has to do with time travel, his eye is on the Keyblade's of characters primarily associated with darkness, he vanished and this would explain where he went, and it would be the only way to know who the traitor is, if there was one at all.

As for Luxu, he was (albeit unintentionally) a large part of causing the Keyblade War and he was given Xehanort's Keyblade. Both of them also wear the Organization coat.

• Confirmed. Luxu is Xigbar, who is a member.

Maleficent's sleeping curse will be used to seal away Master Xehanort

After Xehanort's plans either fail spectacularly, OR Xehanort himself, for once, suffers a proper Pyrrhic Victory. (Bonus points if she does that by sealing him inside the Realm of Sleep.) The curse might even simultaneously affect the entire New Organization XIII by spreading like a virus through their shared heart, as they are technically the same person.

Not only would that make up a little for all the Villain Decay she suffered (as well being a solid revenge for being Xehanort's Unwitting Pawn for all those years), but it would also give Disney characters more direct contribution to the main plot.

The best part? If you closely follow her lines in Birth By Sleep, Maleficent initially seemed to have some doubts about what Xehanort told her regarding the 7 pure lights and Kingdom Hearts was true, until she had Terra 'steal' Aurora's heart of pure light.

She only settled to go and (try to) conquer the worlds after she verified it was possible with the means she was told about by Master Xehanort when Terra 'stole' Aurora's heart.

Except it was really Master Xehanort who used Aurora's incapacitated state (by Maleficent's own curse) to trick Terra and Maleficent into fulfilling the necessary roles that he planned for them.

(And yes, Master Xehanort (chronologically) first manipulated Maleficent by using the opportunity created by her own action.)

Maleficent: "Here it is... Just what I've waited for. To think that all he spoke of was and will be true."

• Jossed.

Galaxy Toys is a trap set by Organization XIII to lure Andy.

The D23 trailer states that Andy has gone missing because of a new toy store called Galaxy Toys. Perhaps Organization XIII created the place to lure Andy there because of his love for toys, which would explain why they were interested in him. Andy's love for his toys brought them to life and so gave them a heart.

• Jossed. They split reality into two. Sora and co. are in one (the one we see) and Andy and the other toys are in the other one.

Master Xehanort will pursue alternative ways to find Ventus.

Possible ways to acquire Ventus:

• Reanimate Aqua's armor OR kidnap Even and force him to make a Replica of Aqua using the leftover memory from Xemnas (Terra's body) and/or the armor. That way, he has a conveniently obedient proxy that shouldn't be affected by Castle Oblivion and could theoretically manage to find the Chamber of Waking.
• Find the Oracle after the defeat of Sa'luk (provided Aladdin and the King of Thieves, the third Aladdin movie gets adapted into the game, which is very likely to happen because of Jasmine). As long as her powers aren't limited only to information about Agrabah (the Magic Mirror managed to access information from beyond its world, even if vaguely, so she could probably be able to do it as she is known for giving answers with perfect clarity) and if Castle Oblivion cannot affect those who already know where to look for, it could be an interesting way to implement more Disney material into the Myth Arc.
• Xehanort settles that Cutting the Knot is the best solution and starts destroying the building itself from the roof to the lowest basement.
• Jossed, he doesn't bother with Ventus at all. Only Vanitas really tries to search for him, for personal reasons.

The Xehanort seen in the trailer is not actually a time-displaced Xehanort but an age-regressed Master Xehanort.

Rather than recast the character after the deaths of both Leonard Nimoy and Otsuka Chikao, some Ass Pull will be utilized where Xehanort has miraculously found a way to de-age himself.

• This was a popular theory, but finally Jossed as of the trailer released on September 18th, where we finally see good ol' Master Xehanort for the first time since his actors died, with a distinctly different voice actor than Chikao Ohtsuka (though he does a fairly good impression). Clearly recasting will also happen for the English dub.

• Jossed.

The other light that Xehanort believes belongs to him is Ventus, via Vanitas.

At the end of Ventus's rasoute, Vanitas appears to dissolve and fall back into Ven's heart. Xehanort perhaps believes this is enough of an opening for him to claim Ven's heart entirely through his fallen apprentice and is just biding his time until Ven awakens and can be taken. Whether or not that'll pan out for him...

• Jossed. The two he refers to are Terra and Xion.

A Sora will be a Xehanort

To take Mind Screw of the Kudzu Plot to new extremes, a version of Sora from an Alternate Universe who is what would have become of Sora had he used the powers of darkness from the very beginning.

• Jossed.

Xehanort will have a chance encounter...

... with a Dandelion or a member of the forces of the darkness from the Keyblade War who accidentally survived by getting trapped in the Realm of Sleep. If it is the latter, that person will become the next Big Bad after being freed from Xehanort's influence.

• Kind of confirmed. The Dandelions participate in the fight against him. The next villains seem to be the Foretellers.

There will be too much darkness for the X-blade

Yes, the original one was shattered into 20 pieces: 7 of light and 13 of darkness. However, the quantities of the total amount of both light and darkness were exactly equal, with the darkness just shattering into almost twice as many, smaller pieces than those of light. In other words, the old Organization XIII actually were adequate, at least in terms of power.

• Jossed.

Saix will be important beyond just being a Xehanort

Because he was number Seven in the original Organization and you can't tell me that's a coincidence.

• Depends on what you call important. Isa is the only Somebody we see return out of the other Organization members in the end.

Master Xehanort is not the true leader of Organization XIII

The true leader is the heartless: Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. The reasons:

1. If a Guardian can fill in for a Princess of Heart, then a Seeker may not necessarily need a heart of pure darkness. Ansem might be the only completely dark member.

2. The Recusant's Sigil is used to track persons of interest, especially potential vessels. Ansem is the only confirmed member so far who doesn't have the sigil in his name.

3. Before the time travel, Ansem did most of the work. He manipulated Maleficent into gathering the princesses and destroying the worlds (which built an artificial Kingdom Hearts), giving Ansem the seven lights and the means to convert vessels into heart-clones of Xehanort. By Hollow Bastion, he had six of the seven and was turning Riku into the final vessel. Had he defeated Sora there, Ansem would have been able to quickly acquire the true X-blade. Meanwhile, before Roxas gave them a Keyblade, it seems like Xemnas's only goal was recruiting and keeping an eye on potential vessels.

4. Consider how Xehanort became a threat again: it is Ansem who makes all this extensive time travel possible. Out of the thirteen, he's the most essential.

5. It would be an appropriate way of wrapping up the Seeker of Darkness saga.

6. It would be appropriate for both Xehanort's method of scheming and Nomura's writing

• Jossed.

Related to the above: Xehanort is not his real name

Ansem gave his younger self the name in order to brand him with the sigil. This is alluded to in his armor's name: No Heart.

His birth name was Ansem. He still stole the other Ansem's identity. They just happened to have the same name.

• Jossed.

Marluxia isn't in the Real Organization.

He still has plans to lead the "only" Organization, and he's finally able to do that now that the position's been vacated. He wants the impostor Real Organization gone so he can truly be the head of the "only" Organization. He will end up helping Sora defeat the Real Organization, paving the way for Marluxia to be the Big Bad of Kingdom Hearts IV.

• Jossed. The "only" part was a mistranslation. He says he's from the Real Organization.

Terranort is one of the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness.

Master Xehanort did say one of the Keyblade wielders mentioned by Mickey belonged to him, most likely referring to Terra. Like Xemnas, Ansem, and Young Xehanort, Terranort is the Final Boss of the game he is featured in, and is another extremely powerful version of Xehanort. He has also appeared in four of the games so far: as Apprentice Xehanort in Kingdom Hearts 2; as the newly possessed Terra in Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep; in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance at the beginning of the game, where he stabs Braig with the No Name Keyblade, though he refers to himself as "Ansem"; and finally, in Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Volume 2, where he attempts to trick Aqua into giving him Ventus' location.

• Confirmed.

Aqua will serve as Master Xehanort's new primary vessel and replacement.

Master Xehanort voice actors passed away, which leads to where Master Xehanort possesses Aqua. Not with a fraction of his heart, but with his full heart so that he could gain full control of Aqua and leave her with very little sense of self. This would write his original voices out of the story and would explain Aqua's possession (Instant grey/silver hair and yellow eyes) that is very similar to Terra's at the end of Birth by Sleep. Therefore giving him a powerful new vessel and the knowledge to find Ven and make him the potential thirteenth vessel.

• Jossed.

Prince Hans is a secret ally

I wouldn't be too surprised if Hans sold out Elsa to Larxene for the chance of using the Heartless to either seize Arendale, or kill his father and brothers. Remember that Scar, Lady Tremaine and Clu were monsterfied as well, and Hans is a major Hate Sink.

• Jossed. Hans has nothing to do with the Organization and pretty much just does what he does in the movie.

None of the Organization members are from other franchises.

No Disney villains, no Final Fantasy villains. They are all characters or versions of characters originally introduced in Kingdom Hearts.

• Confirmed.

Aqua is NOT a Darkness.

Though the end of the current Frozen trailer shows Aqua appearing out of darkness and taking what seems to be a new version of Eraqus's Keyblade, there's some very good chances she's not being possessed by Xehanort or if it's even her. Let's review some points.

• As we see in Kingdom Hearts 0.2, Aqua has been going through the Realm of Darkness and the world has been noted to have made illusions that torment her. What's to say that the Realm of Darkness isn't just making this Aqua as one of it's illusions?
• Even if that is her, let's take some factors into account. She's been noted to have been breaking down in the Realm of Darkness, and believes that she's losing her friends or that they could die. She's lasted at least 11 years of this if we take into consideration rebuilding Sora in CoM took one extra year. One sign of prolonged stress is that it can literally turn your hair to grey/white. One sign of corruption by the darkness is gaining yellow eyes. And since Aqua has been in a place where Everything Is Trying to Kill You, worried about her friends and is very corruptive, it's plausible that she simply got corrupted by the Darkness rather than Xehanort finding her.
  • To add onto both points, consider this: When we last see Aqua, she's with Ansem the Wise. In the first point, we don't see him and therefore it's more plausible that it's an illusion because Aqua wouldn't leave another human stranded there (if her final speech in 0.2 is of any indication). On the second, it's plausible that he's simply off screen.
  • Jossed: Latest Famitsu article confirmed that she's a vessel of Xehanort therefore a darkness.
    • Confirmed in that Aqua is saved from being a vessel afterwards.
• Actually Aqua was never considered to be a vessel from the start. Her falling to darkness was by complete happenstance of fighting Ansem, Seeker of Darkness who was only there to pick up Ansem the Wise. The True Organization didn't know, nor likely care, about her predicament.

The reason Vanitas is wearing his helmet is because he's using Ven's body.

It's to hide from the fact that it's Ven's face under it instead of Vanitas's. The Organization managed to retrieve Ven's body and they can easily use Ven's body as a vessel for Vanitas. Previously, in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] Vanitas was seen unmasked with Sora's face. There is no reason to be wearing his helmet again unless it's Ven's face and his body that he is using.

• That's very unlikely, due to the fact Aqua is the only one who is able to find and open the Chamber of Waking, where Ventus' body is resting. Perhaps he's taken on a new face.....
• Vanitas being resurrected rather than using Time Travel supports this.
• Jossed.

Xion is the XIII Seeker of Darkness

Xion's theme is in the Project Destati DARKNESS along with Terra, Aqua, and Ventus(most likely being setup to be joining Vanitas) while Lingering Will is the VIIth Light and Xion the XIIIth Vessel. Xion's life is nothing more than pain and misery. The moment she was thrown into the world, she was cursed to be fated as nothing more than a puppet of the Organization. Despite her being "forgotten", Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] has Sora shed a tear when he sees Xion's face in a dream, and Kairi's letter to Sora that was revealed at the 2017 World Concert Tour mentions that Lea stares at her feeling as if he's forgotten something important, signaling that the loss of Xion (who is facially identical to Kairi) is subconsciously felt by Axel/Lea as well. It fits with Tetsuya Nomura description of Roxas as the "utmost secret for Kingdom Hearts III" and why Ansem, Seeker of Darkness and Xemnas encourages Sora to "call upon the Darkness" to bring back Roxas. Bringing Roxas back means Xion comes back as the XIII Seeker of Darkness the Organization is looking for. It would fit with how Nomura did potentially compare and say he was dark like Xehanort and similar to him with his burning anger. Xion appeared in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. Who else appeared in the aforementioned title? Vanitas. Who else is a Seeker of Darkness whom part of the Organization? Vanitas.

• This is supported as Kingdom Hearts III flyers that were handed out at the Shinjuku Installation contained several quotes, from Xion, Roxas, and Lea one of the quotes is:
  Xion: "Don’t hold back, Lea."
• That could have been Kairi saying tthat though.
• Xemnas has also stated that Xion is a worthy candidate.
• Confirmed.

Young Xehanort is using his time travelling abilities to turn the Old Organization Members into vessels.

Let’s take a look at Even for a second. Even is the only one of Ansem’s former apprentices, other than Braig, who we know has been into a vessel. We see a Norted Vexen having a conversation with Demyx in one of the Kingdom Hearts III trailers, and his eyes have changed from green to yellow/gold. How is that possible, considering that in Dream Drop Distance, we see Even unconscious on the ground but back in his original form? Right now, this troper only sees one possible explanation. Young Xehanort travels back in time to Nort Vexen BEFORE his heart began to regrow. It’s been established all of the former Organisation members, save for Xigbar and Saix, could not become proper vessels because their hearts were too traitorous or too weak. Were Xehanort to go back and retrieve a version of Vexen before his heart began to grow, he can easily oversee the process of turning Vexen into a vessel himself. In fact, Xehanort should be more successful with this attempt, because he does not have to hide like how Xemnas kept the old Organization in the dark. And let’s take this a step further: What’s stopping Xehanort from doing this with all the other old members as well?

Lea will kill Xion.

He already killed Xion's Creator Vexen so it would be meaningful that he also kills the Creation.

• Close. They fight and Xion almost kills Lea, and then some important stuff happens.

Aqua killed Zack Fair.

Zack mysteriously disappears when a single black feather drops near him. Given the series's Anachronic Order, no mention of him is made since then. It's because he was slain by Aqua's own hand. He was surprised to see Aqua's change and his last words were asking for that date.

• Jossed probably.

Aqua will kill Yen Sid.

Heartless flood Yen Sid’s tower where Yen Sid stands up and he summons a Keyblade and starts doing Flowmotion all over the room whipping ass. Then he gets stabbed In the Back by Aqua as payback for not bothering to help her out. Nearly mimicking her own former Master, Eraqus's demise. She may also taunt "say hi to Eraqus for me!" It doesn't help Yen Sid that unlike most antagonists, Aqua has actually been to Yen Sid's tower and met the wizard himself.

• Jossed.

Aqua will have a friendship with Xemnas and Vanitas.

Aqua's previous friendship with Terra and Ven was left inadvertently broken by her. Aqua would attempt to replace them with Xemnas and Vanitas whom are somewhat similar to Terra and Ven.

• Jossed. She never leaves the Realm of Darkness to meet up with the other Organization members.

Riku Replica is the "Missing Darkness" Young Xehanort is referring to in the Toy Story trailer.

We now know for sure that Riku Replica will be in this game. My theory is that, while he will not be a Seeker of Darkness, he either originally was one and went rogue, or the Xehanorts intended to make him one. In one of the Toy Story trailers, Young Xehanort mentions to Sora that there is a Darkness that they are looking to reclaim, and that the Toy Story world may help them out in their search. My guess is that he is referring to Riku Replica. Think about it! Like Andy's toys, he originally started out as an empty vessel, but eventually developed his own heart through his interactions with others. He is even referred to as "a toy" by Larxene in Chain of Memories. Other than Xion, though it's debatable whether or not Xehanort even knows about her, Riku Replica is the most likely person to be the "Missing Darkness". Having experienced the cruelty of the original Organization XIII firsthand, he'll likely want nothing to do with the new one. Plus, he never seemed to be 'evil', just bitter and angry at the fact that he was just a copy of Riku, and that all his 'memories' were nothing but lies. I'll bet he'll realize that, even though he is a replica of Riku, he is still his own unique person, with his own heart, and that he'll help the heroes fight against the True Organization.

Aqua wants Revenge on Mickey.

She would want Mickey to suffer for leaving her in the Realm of Darkness by banishing Minnie to the Realm of Darkness and killing Yen Sid.

• Confirmed, but the rest of that WMG doesn't happen.

Aqua was made a Xehanort before Dream Drop Distance

When Master Xehanort said that two of the keyblade wielders Mickey mentioned belonged to him, he wasn't referring to Sora. He got to Aqua long before Sora and Riku began their Mark of Mastery.

• Except Xehanort’s exact words were, “Sora and another on your list belong to me”.

Aqua is the new Leader of Organization XIII.

Aqua isn't seen to be wearing the Black Coat that was stated to have the ability to protect the wearer from Darkness. Master Xehanort also didn't wear it when he appeared among them in Dream Drop Distance, which means Aqua is the leader. Master Xehanort himself is either somewhere in Aqua or watching in the shadows.

• Jossed. We see it happen during the game.

Aqua will wield the X-Blade.

She was previously seen as a material to forge the X-Blade by Vanitas. Ventus/Vanitas already wielded it so now it's Aqua's turn.

• Jossed.

Xemnas will die early on.

Xemnas would be a liability as his feelings for Aqua would distract him too much from their goals he needs to help fulfill.

• Jossed.

Master Aqua is No. I, leader of the Organization, and Xion would be No. XIII.

It fits with their name. Xion or "Shio", Japanese for "tide," that is, a nod to the likes of Kairi, Naminé, and Aqua, "water". All worlds begin in water, and all so end. Life is no different. Water sprouts within it, it grows, consumes it. Such is its nature. In the end, every life returns to the water whence it came. You see, water is life's true essence.

• Jossed.

Aqua is the main antagonist.

Master Xehanort attempts to motivate Vanitas in the novelization about how the X-Blade can change everything. This fits Aqua maybe more than Vanitas well. It's only fitting that the woman who suffered and lost everything will change everything.

Master Xehanort: “You will have to grow stronger before you can do it and the same goes for Ventus. When you two then have reached the same strength and fight like this, the χ-Blade will be forged. And then the χ-Blade will release you… no… the world from all suffering.”

• Jossed.

Master Aqua got all the villains, Organization XIII and the Council of Disney Villains, under her thumb.

Hades and Maleficent has always wanted Aqua to fall to darkness and work with her.

• Jossed.

Master Aqua will destroy Disney Castle.

Similar to what Master Xehanort did to Land of Departure. She sic Heartless, Nobodies, Unversed, etc on the inhabitants and banish Minnie to the Realm of Darkness for Revenge against Mickey.

• Jossed.

Yen Sid will be made one of the Thirteen.

He may be the only Disney character to whom this happens, as well. It will mark just how serious things are with Xehanort. So far, the Thirteen theoretically consist of Master Xehanort, Young Xehanort, Ansem SoD, Vanitas, Luxord, Larxene, Marluxia, Xigbar, Saix/Isa, and Xemnas. This leaves three openings. These could possibly be filled by anyone from Ansem the Wise (who could be like Marluxia and Larxene and pulled out of a time when he wasn't dead) to Aqua to Riku Replica to Terranort. Yen Sid would be a powerful ally for Xemnas.

• Jossed.

No Disney or Final Fantasy characters will be made into the Thirteen

There's a lot of KH-exclusive characters who are good candidates, after all.

• Confirmed.

The KHII Organization Members That Were Brought Back Are the Somebodies of the Nobodies From the Previous games

This is a theory I've had for a while and it makes too much sense. So, after KHII, we can assume all of the Organization members Sora faced in the game died after he defeated them. That's, basically, what's stated to have happened. We then see in Dream Drop Distance that Axel reincarnated into his original persona/Somebody; Lea & Zexion reincarnated into his original persona; Ienzo. I'm pretty sure we see some of the others too. Braig might still be Xigbar, but I don't know. When you analyze Xehanort, he's a cunning bastard who likes to play the chessmaster. So, what would he do when his plan failed in DDD? Revamp it by getting rid of the part that failed. Why would he keep the time travel going for his vessels when they're just past versions of him & his plan failed because that was the one weakness that came to pass in the game? He wouldn't, so old Xehanort, who's apparently for the future or something, would recruit the Somebodies who'd be willing to join him again as the Organization in the present to make his plan even more effective. The only people we can be sure are time travelers are Xemnas, Ansem Seeker of Darkness, Young Xehanort, most likely Vanitas, but that's in doubt considering the extended Big Hero 6 trailer, and maybe some others, but the Organization members that are returning can easily be their original personas from before they were turned into Nobodies.

• Jossed.

Other Speculation

Master Xehanort will be facially scarred by a Light 'em Up blast during the Final Battle.

As an Ironic Echo of when he himself scarred Eraqus with a Casting a Shadow blast.

• Jossed.

Ira and Isa are related

A random guess with undoubtedly little to no relevance to the plot, but this is called WMG for a reason.

• I mean, look at the blue hair!

Kairi's grandmother is Ava

Because how else would she know a story that's basically the plot of Kingdom Hearts X?

Returning Ven's heart will hurt Sora.

Sora had carried an extra passenger for most of his life, after all. It's hard to imagine that having two hearts in one body didn't become natural to him. So when Ventus wakes up, it'll be like the event that made Vanitus and make Sora sick.

• Jossed.

The chess pieces represents the present day darknesses and lights.

Darknesses

• Ram Head: Master Xehanort
• Cog Halves: Vanitas
• Xehanort Guardian Heads (x2): Ansem SoD and Terranort or Xemnas
• Two Arrowguns (x2): Xigbar and Braig
• Hourglass: Young Xehanort
• Spiky Circle: Saix/Isa
• Two Cubes: Luxord

Lights

• Crown: Sora
• Heartless Symbol: Riku (References Way to Dawn keychain)
• Mickey Mouse: King Mickey
• Star: ???
  • The Star is most likely represents either Kairi or Aqua. It’s reminiscent of the Paopu Fruit and the Wayfinder

• The specifics aren't detailed, but confirmed.

This game will finally reveal who is behind the voice in the Dive to the Heart areas.

It still hasn't been unveiled who it is, leaving many fans to wonder how they could know to guide Sora to his place ("Destiny is never left to chance")

• I'm pretty sure that was confirmed to be Ventus.
• It was confirmed by Nomura that the voice was Mickey.

Terra will need to work through the consequences of his actions.

Terra's going to have a lot of guilt and PTSD to work through. He used a power that was drilled into his head as evil, fought his father figure, lost Aqua's trust, and became possessed and forced to commit atrocities. He'll need to gain her forgiveness and learn to trust himself again, and it won't be pretty.

• All of that was mostly Xehanort's fault, and some of Eraqus'. Xehanort was the one who meddled and used his powers flare up the darkness inside of Terra's heart knowing that Eraqus being prejudice towards the darkness would cost him his chance of becoming a true master. And with Terra feeling uncertain about himself with the darkness, Xehanort opened up to Terra and gave him some pretty fair advice about the darkness and made Terra feel more comfortable about the darkness while Eraqus made Terra feel like he's an untrustworthy failure. And the only reason Terra's darkness kept getting stronger was because Xehanort kept coming with plans to induce Terra's anger, thus expanding the darkness inside him. And the only reason Terra fought Eraqus was because Eraqus was attempting to kill Ventus to avoid the X-Blade's forge after Xehanort told Ventus the truth and go confront Eraqus. While Terra weakned Eraqus, Xehanort was the one who delivered the final blow and killed Eraqus. While some of it was a bit of Terra's fault, you can't deny that he was pretty much forced into everything that he's gone through.

Xehanort is actually a Well-Intentioned Extremist.

Specifics: During the new trailer, Xehanort is playing chess with Eraqus and discussing a prophecy where Darkness triumphs over Light. He seems to believe that You Can't Fight Fate, but at the end says he hopes the Light surprises him. Through the entire series, Xehanort has been trying to guide the Darkness' inevitable victory down a path that can be undone, and is counting on the heroes to fix the universe once the prophecy's been fulfilled.

• Unlikely. While him being a Well-Intentioned Extremist who believes he is fixing the world by creating balance is implied, he wouldn’t have tried to fulfill the prophecy by creating the X-Blade in Birth By Sleep, where the only reason he lost was because of Mickey’s appearance. There was no way in his plan for heroes of light to fix the world. Plus the line seems to be either sarcastic or him hoping for a challenge.
• Actually somewhat confirmed by the end of the game, though by the time we face him he had long lost sight of his goal.

The 7 Guardians of Light will confront the Real Organization in the Keyblade Graveyard, but Xehanort will win

Specifics: During the fight, Master Xehanort will exploit Sora's inexperience with Darkness again by either A) tricking the kid into thinking that the old man killed Kairi (really just an advanced sleep spell), or B) forcibly unlock his heart. This will cost the seven guardians the battle and Xehanort gains the X-Blade, along with the power of Kingdom Hearts itself. From then on, the game will move to a second act wherein Sora and co. must stave off Xehanort's plans any way they can, and Sora must control the Darkness wthin himself.

• Confirmed in that everyone gets incapacitated and Sora has to reverse time to fix it.

Darth Maul will appear as a bonus boss. Its more likely than a full fledged Star Wars world and the guy looks and fights pretty much like a Kingdom Hearts' boss

• Jossed.

Aqua will follow in Eraqus's Light Is Not Good footsteps.

Being his best pupil and only named successor, having her and her friends' lives ruined by Xehanort's Dark Is Evil, and enduring Nightmare Fuel in the Realm of Darkness will all end up pushing her into Knight Templar/Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds territory.

Lea/Axel will train with Kairi under Master Riku

Giving Riku a whole new doubt about his ability to teach (cause he'd be too awesome if he wasn't doubting himself about something). Sora could also get jealous of Riku's time spent with Kairi opening up the love triangle one more. Axel's just in there to add more dynamic character interaction.

• 0.2 confirms that they're training together, but under Merlin, not Riku. It's unlikely that they'll have time to train during KHIII
• They actually do have time to train during KH3 in some sort of Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Unfortunately it's still nowhere near enough time to turn them into viable Keyblade fighters by the endgame

The True Final Boss will be more difficult than any secret boss.

As the culmination of the entire series boss fights, the Final Boss (presumably Xehanort in some form) will have boosted stats, speed, and a variety of attacks on par with any secret boss, minus MF's cheap-ass spamming or one-hit kills. He can't be cheesed or beaten through stats. This is the reason the KH team has been seeding super-hard secret bosses in each game.

• I hope not.
• From a game design perspective that is a terrible idea. While it may very well be harder than Terra’s Final Boss, it cannot be harder than a Superboss. Bonus bosses are, by design, extra fights for those who want to put in the effort to challenge them. A Final Boss is meant to be beatable by people who aren’t as good or aren’t interested in Level Grinding or unlocking the best weapons and abilities (which is often necessary to prevent bonus bosses from killing you in one hit). If people want to play the game for the story, such a Difficulty Spike, would be incredibly unfair.
  • From a story perspective however, it makes sense. To include secret bosses who are more powerful than the Final Boss is to say there are entities in the 'verse who could overpower Xehanort at any time they pleased - and only haven't because they didn't care to. The moment Xehanort goes One-Winged Angel and becomes an "inconvenience", someone like Sephiroth could smack him down and steal the χ-blade for himself. As a developer, you want to communicate that the True Final Boss of a series is a threat that only you - someone who has been building up to it for literal decades now - can stop. This game is supposed to show Sora at his most powerful, which means all enemies are subject to Serial Escalation.
  • This is the reason Gameplay and Story Segregation exists. Unless you honestly believe the Ice Titan is stronger than Xehanort then Bonus Bosses cannot necessarily overpower story characters. Kingdom Hearts is incredibly good about keeping its Bonus Bosses story relevant (Xemnas, Lingering Will, and Young Xehanort), having them be just rampaging monsters (The aforementioned Titan and Julius) or of questionable canonicity (the Mirage Arena, Vanitas Remnant and the Data XIII). With the exception of Sephiroth (who in story is equal in power to Cloud, who is a much easier boss) none of these characters are a real threat. As a developer, you want people to play the game they create and have fun, giving them options in how they play, how seriously or casually they do so (hence difficulties) and how much time they want to put into it. The developer cannot expect every gamer to have been preparing for this for a decade since plenty of people only played the numbered titles and the game is going to the only one in the series on an Xbox system. While most Xbox players buying the game may be familiar through Nintendo installments, they may not have a grasp of the numbered plot. An opponent who is more difficulty in gameplay is not always stronger in story (Demyx is not stronger than Xemnas just because he is That One Boss) and, opposite to your statement, the developers don’t want to communicate the power to you in a way that forces hours of grinding. The game is already showing Sora at his most powerful and Nomura has confirmed that to compensate for this the game is going to be harder (the enemies having better AI is the biggest factor) but the sheer level of Difficulty Spike between the main game and a Superboss is just plain stupid to force on the players (there's a reason they are called Bonus Bosses). Plus there will still have to be Bonus Bosses anyway who are still more difficult than the final boss for those who want it so this is completely impossible (unless they do a “beat everything to unlock a harder version of the final boss and you get a cool little extra thing” and that thing would not be story related, but that still is different from what you're suggesting).
    • Might depend on how you unlock that True Final Boss. My bet is that by the time you even encounter said boss, there is no Superboss that is not defeated by this point. Logical since you're likely to get better equipment to fight said boss. Either that or they give you a Boss Rush true arena-style similar to Marx Soul or Magalor Soul (again, most likely after the bonus bosses.) Might involve beating the Final Boss and anything that can be described as a Superboss and then replaying the game in New Game Plus mode.
    • The Re:Mind DLC could count, as you have to fight all 13 members of the New Organisation XIII, with Master Xehanort or Xion being the last one you face, in the secret episode. And then, just when you think it's over, you have to fight Yozora.

Xehanort will gain control of Riku and use his body for the final battle.

Having failed to corrupt Sora in the past, Xehanort will instead opt to use Riku, who he has already successfully corrupted before and may even still have some influence over. And from a story perspective Riku has already proven to be a valuable friend and a truly formidable enemy, someone who would be worthy but very tragic to face in the final battle. Heroic Sacrifice upon regaining control is also in there.

• Except the whole reason Xehanort tried to corrupt Sora is because Riku, despite being Xehanort's first choice, proved too hard to control, and that was before he became a Master. If Xehanort could have corrupted Riku, he would have done it already in 3D. At this point, Riku is just north of the Princesses of Heart in terms of people least likely to be a Xehanort vessel.
• Jossed.

This game will have a new theme song.

This is a Numbered Sequel yo. Kingdom Hearts II does have a themesong different from Kingdom Hearts I. Kingdom Hearts I uses "Simple and Clean"/"Hikari". Kingdom Hearts II uses "Sanctuary"/"Passion".

• I've heard in the past that Utada Hikaru confirmed that "Beautiful World" had been checked as the theme for Kingdom Hearts III. Granted, the sources aren't necessarily reliable, as this was before Birth By Sleep was officially released.
  • I highly doubt they'd use the Rebuild of Evangelion theme song in an unrelated video game series. But this kind of claim isn't new—way back in the day, I saw some fansites claiming that "First Love" would be the Chain of Memories theme song. Anyway, an Utada theme song was teased as a yes and then retracted.
• But isn't Utada on hiatus right now? Will she return for Kingdom Hearts? By the way, she just got married in May 2014 so if Square approaches her in the coming months, she might not accept.
• Confirmed.
• If there could be an Updated and re-released Nintendo Switch version, Transformers EVO
• Confirmed. The game gets two new theme songs.

Ven, Terra, and Aqua will reunite.

They have to, or the 7 keybladers will not be complete. The real theory here is how will they reunite. Obviously Aqua (probably with Ansem the Wise) will be able to escape the Realm of Darkness. Ven will wake up when Vanitas is finished off and returns to him somehow. Terra will most likely be either be in the form of a Terranort betraying the 13 'Norts or something, or he will be a Terra from a different timeline, just like some of the 13 'Norts.

• Confirmed except for Ven, where Vanitas continues to be a problem, though it does involve a Vanitas boss fight.
  • And as part of the Re:Mind final bosses, one of them includes all three fighting together.

Sora will become an embodiment of darkness.

Given how Kairi is light (duh), Riku is shifting towards some sort of twilit figure, Sora will complete the triangle by becoming the dark. He already showed a willingness to dwell in the darkness with Riku, and is incredibly forgiving and kind.. So with all the corruption Xehanort's machinations put Sora through, it'll backfire spectacularly by Sora becoming the embodiment of Dark is not Evil.

• This can be supported by Sora's history with the darkness, be it his previous transformation into a heartless (and basically a year of living as a light-based heartless or something while his body worked for the organization) and his occasional lapses into Anti-form in KHII.
• Riku’s status as the twilight is debatable (he explicitly says he is not twilight, but rather dawn, to DIZ) and he already covers Dark Is Not Evil. It would make more sense for Sora to be the true twilight, wielding light and darkness equally (Riku still mostly uses darkness), which would also represent the idea Xehanort seems to believe in, but would not be brought along by Xehanort’s extreme methods.
• Jossed.

Sora and Kairi's feelings for each other will play a role in the game.

Why, Sora already saw the updated version of their drawing in the cave right? That has to imply something. And considering Kairi will most likely be fighting alongside him, Riku, Lea, etc etc and considering that this is like, the grand finale of the "Xehanort as Big Bad Arc"... And oh! This could also be a chance for a Sora-Riku-Kairi team-up!

• Confirmed? At Destiny Islands, they exchange paopu fruit, which is as close of a kiss you'll get in this game, and Kairi and Sora have one last goodbye before he disappears after saving her life in the end.
  • Even more confirmed during the final boss of the Re:Mind DLC, as Sora and Kairi fight together, with a special attack calling back to their relationship!

Sora and Kairi will get married in the epilogue.

Xehanort will finally be out of the way, allowing them to be together forever.

• Or at least start dating. Married at 15-16 seems a little extreme even for Disney standards. It also depends on Nomura's feelings about the deal, since romance has really only been hinted at in the story so far.
• By the standards of the series, dating is a little un-subtle for what the writers' taste seems to be. The most developed romance is in the very storytelling-heavy 358/2 Days, and no one actually voiced their feelings in any way. Kairi and Sora have spent more time apart than anything, and unless they spend the entire game together (not improbable, but Sora is apparently slated to stick with Donald and Goofy), it'd be unusually heavy-handed. I think the KH teams just like the romantic grey-area.
  • "Kairi and Sora spent more time apart than anything"? That would be forgetting they grew up together for 9 years, and have never been separated for more than one year ever since. Not to mention that, far from pausing their relationship, their time apart has frequently been used for not-so-subtle Ship Teasing by the writers (Sora thinking of Kairi or looking longfully at her oathkeeper in a Star-Crossed Lovers fashion, for instance), and the words "like" and "love" have been used to describe their feelings by other characters. However, I do agree with you about the writers obviously not wanting to bring it to dating or wedding territory, which is why a simple Relationship Upgrade is probably the likeliest option for KH III.
• And the series will probably need something unresolved to carry into the prospective future titles, and romance is typically the default option.
• Jossed.

Sora will be out of commission for a brief time

Either kidnapped by the 'Norts again (can't let such a potential vessel get away now, can they?) or separating himself from Ventus, Roxas, Xion, and- potentially, since it's not confirmed -Vanitas might take a huge toll on his well-being.

• Confirmed, but for a different reason.

Kairi will wear a Princess Classic dress at some point, possibly involving a return to Radiant Garden

This will then be used as reason to add her to the Disney Princesses line.

• Jossed.

Deadpool, Captain America Thor and Thanos will be bonus bosses in the game

The rewards for beating them will be a cosmic keyblade for beating Thanos, Mjolnir for Donald and Captain America`s shield for Goofy and a Deadpool summon.

• This sounds very unlikely, mostly because even Disney is aware that Marvel and Disney Animated Canon do not mesh together well. But one has to admit, if a Marvel crossover were to happen, it would be pretty damn awesome.
• A Star Wars cross-over is probably more likely, since the Clone Wars art style and future-high-fantasy war setting meshes better with KH than the superhero teams do. I doubt they'd go with both.
  • If Deadpool is in he will be A) A cameo like ViVi's hat on Donald's Staff B) A Big-Lipped Alligator Moment that isn't brought up again or mentioned in the Journal or C) A Superboss who yells at The Player after losing and vanishing leaving Sora and Co. confused wondering who he's talking too
    • Alternatively, Deadpool could be a very powerful Summon who is a Game-Breaker. He would be very Powerful, as he would possess a Gigantic amount of Attacks and Weaponry And one last thing, a Take That! to Roman Reigns winning against Triple H and Undertaker in two WrestleManias, where one of the boss fights in the game is a monstrous Brock Lesnar Expy. Bonus points for Shout-Out jokes to One-Punch Man, Fist of the North Star and Kinnikuman, with big Take That! jokes where Shonen Jump didn't have King Muscle in recent console crossover games (especially with JumpForce aka the biggest one of all).
  • Also, how about a big Take That! to Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe in which the former which is top horrific and dark that had been Bowlderized for the Younger fans of Superheroes. Unlike that, Deadpool will be Sanitized, but still faithful to the source material like Nintendo did with Bayonetta.
• Jossed.

If there will be a Marvel world, Donald and Goofy will be dressed as their superhero alter egos.

You ask who I'm talking about? These◊ guys◊.

• It is somewhat unlikely considering that these costumes aren't that known or popular in America or Japan, for that matter (and the fact that will there even be a Marvel world in the game) but it would fit so well.
• Jossed.

The finale will introduce a Light Is Not Good villain for the next trilogy

...proving Xehanort right about the Balance Between Good and Evil.

• Contrarily, he or she will be an authentic Anti-Villain (instead of a Hypocritical Sociopath like Xehanort) with Unintentionally Sympathetic and Villain Has a Point issues against Darkness for all the harm it's visibly caused time and time again; in fact, that may even make him or her a Villain with Good Publicity to countless people disillusioned with the idea of "Balance" (ironically thanks to "Balance"-obsessed people like Xehanort, thus doubling as retroactive Laser-Guided Karma against him).
  • Alternatively he/she will be just as bad if not worse than Xehanort, that would be a good way to fit in with the balance theory.
• Confirmed. The Foretellers seem to be the next villains.

Sora will wield the χ-Blade at some point in the game

Yen Sid stated that, after the Keyblade War, the original χ-Blade was split in 7 fragments of light (The Princesses of Heart) and 13 fragments of Darkness (The Seekers of Darkness). Xehanort has amassed 13 Seekers of Darkness to fight against the Light, while Sora is looking for 7 pure Guardians of Light to fight them. This foreshadows the return of the original χ-Blade.

And, well, since Sora carries within himself the heart of Ventus, who once wielded it, it makes sense that the big grand final confrontation involves Sora using the χ-Blade, right?

• His wielding it will likely have nothing to do with the fact that Ven was in his heart, though. It will be due to the mysterious strength of his heart, the same strength that allowed him to protect Kairi and Ven's hearts.
• Confirmed. Xehanort hands it over to Sora and congratulates him and he uses it to bring Kingdom Hearts back to normal.

The "light" that Xehanort has claimed as his vessel is Kairi.

While Kairi's nature as a Princess of Heart would normally prevent Xehanort from being able to possess her, we must remember that in the first game, Kairi spent some time without a heart. This would be the perfect time for one of the fragments to take refuge in her body; when her heart returned, the fragment of Xehanort's heart was too minor for her's too notice.As Sora and the gang defeat the various other vessels, Kairi will gradually show signs of sickness and unwellness. This is because as they free or destroy the vessels, the fragment splits and joins with the remaining ones.When they all confront Master Xehanort, and take him down, his heart will overwhelm Kairi's and he will take the Princess as his new vessel. Cue the final battle.

• That would be an interesting mirror to the events of Day's ending.
• Three problems. 1: Even without her heart, Kairi’s body was still resistant to darkness (hence why it didn’t disappear like when anyone else becomes a Heartless). 2: Being a Princess of Heart, Kairi’s heart is 100% devoid of darkness. No darkness is too minor to notice and could not overwhelm her heart (everyone whose hearts have been overwhelmed are steeped in darkness, like Terra, or have no heart to fight back with, like Saix). 3: Since Kairi is a Princess of Heart, making her a Seeker of Darkness would defeat his plan’s Morton's Fork (either the heroes fight him as Guardians of Light or he uses the Princesses of Heart as light, either way the X-Blade is forged) meaning this would only hinder his plans.
  • Perhaps she could come to the future from the time when she was out of commission. Perhaps she could be corrupted by Xehanort's darkness without her heart, the reason she never turned into a Heartless being just a natural impossibility for all Princesses of Heart, with or without their hearts. After she got her heart back, it would naturally have gotten rid of Xehanort's darkness. This would also remove Xehanort's dilemma with his Morton's Fork, since he would have gotten her from a different timeline and not the present day.
  • New troper here. Another problem with this is that Master Xehanort's exact words were that "Sora and another on [Mickey's] list" belonged to him. Mickey's "list" consisted of himself, Riku, Sora, and his "three missing friends", Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. Mickey never actually mentioned who the seventh would be, though it's implied to be Kairi. Since Mickey never said Kairi's name, she can't be the other vessel Xehanort was referring to, and I highly doubt Xehanort was referring to anyone other than Terra as the other vessel.
  • Same troper as above. Now that Aqua’s been shown having fallen to darkness, Xehanort also could have been referring to her.
• Confirmed... kind of. Xehanort sacrifices Kairi, but Sora rescues her in the ending, which is explored further in the DLC.

Xehanort is getting played by Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts really does want the universe to be rebalanced and all that, but not by Xehanort. It's letting Xehanort do all he's doing so that the X-blade will be reformed, seeing as how he's the only one callous enough to do what needs to be done. But with how he'd been destroying so many worlds with his progress, the Heart of All Worlds wouldn't be keen on letting him have all that power. So when the true X-Blade is formed by the 7x13 clash, Kingdom Hearts will appear and have it reject Xehanort. Then Sora gets the X-Blade, because destiny, and reforms the World to its original unified glory without the need of a Keyblade War to destroy everything first. Sora remains as the eternal protector of Kingdom Hearts, its light, saves everyone Xehanort had hurt with his actions, and so on.

Cue Simple and Clean.

The Foretellers are actually the emotions of the exiled person.

You all have heard the theory that Kingdom Hearts chi’s foretellers are destined to re-incarnate as Riku (Unicornus), Kairi (Vulpis), Terra (Ursus), Ventus (Leopardus) and Aqua (Anguis) and how HMK stated that Sora was the re-incarnation of the sixth foreteller.

The Five foretellers are actually the splintered off emotions of the sixth pupil of the Master of Masters, Unicornus being the sixth disgust, Leopardus sixth’s joy, Vulpis his fear, Anguis his sadness, and Ursus his Anger… and if the recent re-incarnation theory that’s been buzzing along the KH community is to be believed, this means that corresponding characters Riku, Ventus, Kairi, Aqua and Terra are all fragments of this sixth foreteller reborn in the re-organized world, but splintered even further into light and dark halves ala Ventus and Vanitas. These two halves are Sora and Xehanort. This puts Xehanorts motives to forge the x-blade that much more important to him: he subconsciously knows he is just a shard of what he’s supposed to be and therefore he needs to be complete and defeat the one causing the imbalance of light and darkness… Yes, It has come to my attention that the Master of Masters is setting this whole thing up, this conflict of light and darkness, the convoluted storyline that’d make Hideo Kojima Blush, the one-dimensional characterization its critics take away from the games, and the Disney Elements that have been rendered reduntant by Disney Infinity and in this critic’s opinion was never meant for a franchise like this to begin with.

I believe this theory combined with the re-incarnation theory makes a lot of sense and I can actually see it happening in the game since it acknowledges the similarities between Sora and Xehanort as well as painting a more sympathetic reason to Xehanort’s actions, he doesn’t just want balance between light and darkness, he also wants to be whole once again. But it’s also sad because this probably means that Sora’s going to be the only Kingdom Hearts Character left after Kingdom Hearts III since the other guys will probably be back in the child’s heart, joining the likes of Roxas, Namine, Xion and Vanitas. I doubt fans will like this for being an example of that ol' Torch the Franchise and Run trope that's tainted supposed final games... especially when its supposed to conclude a saga and not a franchise.

The χ-blade is sentient

Think about it, the χ-blade is the counterpart of the Kingdom Hearts, so it wouldn't be far-fetched to tell that the χ-blade has a will on its own, and is in fact the very thing the Keyblade Masters of the ancient past has fought in the Keyblade War. After all, if Keyblades can transform, then surely it wouldn't be far-fetched for the χ-blade to transform into something monstrous (and perhaps numerous) to kept the people's hands off the Kingdom Hearts, right?

My guess is that, during the Keyblade War, it has either embraced or overtaken by the darkness on its own while attempting to protect the Kingdom Hearts itself, and thus split itself into 13 dark and 7 light pieces. The dark pieces, perhaps corrupted by the ancient Keyblade Masters who latches their own darkness into the χ-blade itself, eventually made their way to Xehanort (Ansem SoD gave him an χ-blade fragment to Young Xehanort, which eventually draws in the rest of the χ-blade fragments), drawn by his curiosity to reach the Kingdom Hearts, which would somewhat explain Xehanort's connection to Recusant's Sigil.

The Master Keeper

Seeing that Sora stumbled across the weapon in the trailer, someone had to put it there. The current theory is that Aqua, trying to escape the Realm of Darkness after being reinspired by Ansem's words, is using it as her ticket to the light. By finding a means to send the keyblade to the realm of light, that could create a point of contact for her. Using the keyblade, and Sora's ever shining heart, she could create a door to light to finally escape the darkness and return home.

• Has someone been watching Doctor Who? (Actually, though, that's a pretty feasible theory.)

Gameplay and stuff

The World Ends with You, the first non-Final Fantasy game became a part of the KH universe. This opens the floodgates for other Square-Enix franchises to pull from. Perhaps Dragon Quest, Mana Series, Valkyrie Profile, or Chrono Trigger. Lightning or Noctis may show up to prepare hype for other Square games.

• Guys. Star Ocean is published by Square-Enix. Combine with Treasure Planet. Let the awesomeness commence.

New Disney Worlds may include revisiting the jungle outside of Tarzan with The Jungle Book. A cross-over of Atlantis/Treasure Planet with certain FF characters along for the ride! Wreck-It Ralph in the Tron world! Mary Poppins or the Robinson family in Traverse Town! A Mewni themed WrestleMania hosted by Mina and Ludo together featuring various Dragon Quest monsters.

Finally the only thing that can happen at the beginning of the game is the justifiable tutorial level where Kairi and Lea learn the ways of the Keyblade from Yen Sid and/or Riku, who has now passed his Mark of Mastery exam.

• Jossed.
  • semi-Confirmed, actually. Sora is in TWEWY's Shibuya in the Secret Movie.
  • Though do keep in mind The World Ends With You for later...

Sora will channel Kingdom Hearts itself during the final fight

• Heart Is an Awesome Power, right? Sora HAS that power, right? Kingdom Hearts is the "Heart of all worlds", right? (Okay, just making sure you're following.) Sora's unique ability of influencing/taking in/messing around with hearts could potentially have an effect on this "massive heart" so to speak. So, let's say Xehanort DOES summon it- oh noes all around, right? Xehanort rants, marking KH as his and blah blah blah evil victory speech while there's a mass Oh, Crap!. Well Sora ain't giving up here! He uses the craziest idea he has and goes "WRONG old man!" and manages to become a Physical God with the brief stunt and manages to restore all Xehanort-possessed or any other maladies at the time people and end Xehanort once and for all.

If Frollo is one of the Organization, he will return to La Cite des Cloches for revenge on Quasimodo and Esmeralda.

And we'll finally get to fight him.

• La Cite des Cloches appearing is unlikely considering nearly all the Disney worlds are brand new, but Frollo being a boss would be a great idea. Especially if after being defeated the first time he turns into the largest Heartless ever.
• Jossed.

A Star Wars or Marvel character will be a Secret Boss

• It wins both sides over: you get to fight, say Vader or Doctor Doom, without having a world for it
  • Or Galactus, the devourer of worlds
• Jossed due to the Screwed by the Lawyers problem, although the closest thing we can get is Disney Infinity 3.0, for now.

Kefka will appear in a story relevant crossover between Final Fantasy VI and The Black Cauldron.

• the Horned King could be a kind of counterpart to Gestahl and replace Creeper with Kefka. After the boss battle with the Horned King, (which could totally serve as a recursive shoutout to the Hades summon from Final Fantasy VII,) have Kefka shove the Horned King towards the Cauldron, killing him... When the stage is visited again later in the game, Kefka can have drained the Cauldron of its powers in a vein similar to how he robbed the Warring Triad of their powers... For added bonus points; both The Black Cauldron and Final Fantasy VI are considered some of the darkest entries produced by their respective companies, not only allowing Kefka to be just as monsterous as he really was but also creating an entire stage composed of Nightmare Fuel.
• Jossed.

Other future Final Fantasy and Square-Enix character appearances

Taken from the main WMG page, here are some speculations as to who we will meet this time.

• Red XIII/Nanaki — Sora and co. meet him in the Pride Lands.
• Terra — The party member you meet at Olympus.
  • She'd probably have to be renamed Tina like in the Japanese version of FFVI, so we won't get her confused with the other Terra.
    • So what, that didn't stop them from having two Rikus.
    • One of them has an extra k, remember?
    • None of the Gullwings had their names spoken in-game either, which is why there isn't as much confusion.
    • It DID stop them from having two Rik(k)us. That's why Selphie was the part of the Destiny Islands beta trio despite not being from FFX like Tidus and Wakka, and why Yuffie is Leon's sidekick.
    • In Kingdom Hearts Re:coded, there are several obtainable Avatar Parts in the Avatar Menu and one◊ of them is based on Terra's Dissidia outfit, such as "FF6 Terra's Sword" so Square Enix doesn't seem to mind having two Terras in Kingdom Hearts.
• Locke — A thie- err, treasure hunter in Agrabah who is friends with Aladdin, looking for something to save someone (either Rachel or Celes) who had been turned into a heartless. (Ow, my lungs!)
• Chocobos — Summons.
• Zidane — Maybe meet him at Neverland as a new recruit of the Lost Boys.
  • Alternatively, if they make a Tangled world, he will be one of Flynn's partners in crime.
  • He could fit pretty well in La Cite des Cloches, too, as a gypsy.
• Lulu — She could be a fourth member of the Gullwings.
  • She wouldn't look out of place in Halloween Town either.
• Shinra and the Turks — President Shinra is the principal of Kairi's school, Rufus is the student body president, and the Turks serve as the prefects.
  • ...Which would make that particular school the most ecologically unfriendly school ever.
• Rinoa — Due to the hint we got at the end of KHII, we may see her as a new recruit in the Restoration Committee.
• Laguna Loire — (Different troper) Appears in Radiant Garden along with the rest of the Restoration Committee, perhaps as the elected President of Radiant Garden in a Mythology Gag to his original game. Has a bit of credibility to it, since Dissidia:duodecim is going to feature him, update his character, and give him a voice actor. It would also provide a subtler Mythology Gag, in that Squall's Dissidia voice actor first voiced Squall in Kingdom Hearts II.
  • Could also make a reference to Squall not liking the guy, and saying he feels like he's in a bad dream around him.
  • It would also provide a Mythology Gag as he was meant to be in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep as the head of the Mirage Arena.
  • Made even better should the fact that Laguna is Leon's father be referenced.
• Professor Hojo — (Different WM Ger) Even if Shin-Ra is not around, the experiments done by the Apprentices involving the Heart reminded me far too much of Hojo's experiments with Mako and JENOVA cells. Bonus: Helletic Hojo is his Heartless while Lifeform Hojo N (in before N = Nobody) is his Nobody. The physical appearances of both forms are too similar to hideous Heartless and Lifeform Hojo N looks a HELL of a lot like a Dusk. Seriously, look at them both. All he's missing as LHN is an Organization Emblem.
  • But Isn't Even/Vexen sorta the setting's version of Hojo already? He even looks kinda like him, save for lacking glasses and having blonde hair.
  • Of course, Vexen might be poised for a Heel–Face Turn, so Xehanort might be looking for someone to replace him.
• Vincent — Halloween Town.
• Cecil Harvey. Has both powers of light and darkness, has a habit of helping the villains but is nevertheless a good guy. Sound familiar?
• Lighting — Controlled by the fal'Cie as part of some crazy plan to do something.
  • Don't forget that she'll fight off against Cloud in a duel, only to be interrupted by Sephiroth.
• Balthier — Why the hell not?
  • He could appear in a Treasure Planet world as a famed space pirate captain alongside his first mate Fran.
    • Fran would fit in fairly well with the Little Bit Beastly characters of Treasure Planet.
• Jecht — As the mayor of Destiny Islands. Or just a resident, but who wouldn't want Tidus and Kairi to be (adopted) siblings?
• Queen Brahne — If not Jecht, then she could be the mayor of Destiny Islands. Also, I've always imagined Pat Carroll doing her voice.
• Princess Garnet — I mean, it'd make sense, if her mother is in it. She'd be Kairi's step-sister. Maybe, just for the sake of a Mythology Gag, she'd give Kairi a dagger for good luck if she ever goes on her own journey.
  • Kairi even looked a lot like Dagger in Another Side, Another Story.
• Shuyin (third troper) as a DI resident and Tidus's twin brother.
• Irvine Kinneas- Resident of Destiny Islands like he was supposed to. Like the Lulu theory above, there'd be some Ship Tease between him and Selphie. Instead of a gun, his weapon would be a trigger-powered slingshot or something.
  • That's be a GREAT idea.
• Adelbert Stiener- If the Queen Brahne and Princess Garnet theory come true, he'd be their bodyguard.
  • Alternatively, if they make a world based on Tangled, he'll be a mercenary hired by Mother Gothel to keep Rapunzel from leaving her tower. His backstory will reveal that he was once the knight of the kingdom Rapunzel came from, but stepped down when she was kidnapped. He vowed to never return until he found her. Once he learns who he was guarding and Gothel's intentions, he will join Sora's group.
• Gau — If The Jungle Book (1967) ends up becoming a world, he'd be a friend/rival of Mowgli's.
• Vaan— Like Zidane, he'd probably be in The Lost Boys.
• Judge Gabranth — A Dragon to either Maleficent or Xehanort. Most likely Maleficent because if your dragon is Captain Ass-Zipper, you'd probably pick Gabranth.
• Rubicante — Another possibility for an new dragon to Maleficent.
• Quistis Trepe — (another troper) C'mon. Who do you think is teaching all the kids on the islands? On the other hand, she could be in the Radiant Garden and there would be a Love Triangle withe her Leon and Rinoa.
• Golbez - (same troper as immediately above) Having wrangled with some of the same problems Riku did, he could serve as a mentor of sorts to the boy (and could maybe teach him some dark magic?).
• Gilgamesh — (see above) Shame on you all for not suggesting this earlier. Shows up as a Superboss in Britain, looking for Excalibur (which Sora would most likely obtain as a Keyblade). Hilarity Ensues. And given that Gilgamesh is a canonical Dimensional Traveler, he's the only character besides Auron who stands a chance of being the genuine article.
  • Alternatively, if they ever make a Wreck-It Ralph-based world, he will appear since both he and Ralph in some ways, jump worlds and break the fourth wall.
  • Better yet, he could say that he's been after the keyblade for years, and we'd see a montage of him trying but failing to make a grand entrance in cutscenes all throughout the series.
• Noctis — Since its confirmed that XV is the reason we won't see KH3, he'd better be in it to help make up for the long wait. Am I right?
  • He, Gladio, Prompto, and Ignis could either be part of the Restoration Committee or be the Final Fantasy character Hades hires to kill Hercules. If the latter, Noctis's reason for helping Hades could be that Regis is the Emperor of Greece and was overthrown, so Hades agreed to help him retain his kingdom in exchange for killing Hercules.
  • Noctis could go into a deep sleep at one point and end up in the Realm of Darkness in the mean time.
• Emperor Mateus Palamecia- Since it's tradition for Hades to bring in a FF character, he'll serve as one of the antagonists of the world. He'll be the newest emperor of Greece, and starts a new rule of tyranny. During the first visit to the world, Sora, the gang, and Hercules will stop him, which leads to his death. At the second one, he'll overthrow Hades and take over the underworld as he prepares to take over Mount Olympus.
• Ultros — He could appear in a world based on The Emperor's New Groove as a past specimen of Yzma's experiments. I have no idea how or why one of Yzma's experiments would result in a perverted talking octopus, but I'm sure she thought it was a good idea at the time.
  • Alternatively, he's a bonus boss in another Pirates of the Caribbean level.
  • And even Ultros wouldn't find Yzma attractive. Everyone Has Standards, even Ultros.
• Lucca/Robo — Not a Final Fantasy character, but we had The World Ends with You characters, right? Probably part of the restoration committee and will probably help out with Gummi ships as well. Also, Frog just so we can have a joke about his and Sephiroth's Masamunes, and the fact that he already got a Shout-Out in the form of a Dream Eater in Dream Drop Distance
  • No, better yet; Frog would be dueling Sephiroth right before Sora shows up.
    • Marle and Chrono would show up as well, Disney does love their princesses and Chrono... wouldn't say much, but he could spar with Riku and Sora to teach them some of his abilites from Chrono Trigger..
• Mog/Stiltzkin - Moogles have been all over the games. It makes sense for them to introduce some of the named ones as part of certain sidequests.
• Bahamut - He was to be a summon in the original game. Being a summon or secret boss would still be an option, and he's also the most iconic of them. Odin or Alexander are also viable options.
• Freya - Retool her into any world with talking animals, maybe one based on Robin Hood as a guest party member. Or make her a member of the royal guard that Goofy is captain of.
• Ellone- Xehanort's using time travel, so the forces of light could really use the Time Sorceress.
• Tiz, Agnès, Edea and Ringabel - Not Final Fantasy characters, but again, the TWEWY crew made it into Dream Drop Distance, didn't it? They could either have their own character arc in Traverse Town or Twilight Town (In which case, Alternis Dim, Braev Lee, and/or Airy could make excellent bosses), or simply have cameo appearances like the Gullwings had in II.
• Class Zero - course that still won't make up for the fact that the game received No Export for You. Admittedly... this would be quite amusing since Jack is an Expy of Demyx.
• Lightning, Serah and Snow - Could show up as residents of Radiant Garden, Lightning as a guard working for Leon and Serah as a teacher in regards to their previous occupations in the games.
  • Snow is running a gym for training "heroes" and wants to be a Keyblade wielder as a counter point to the fiery Lea. Sazh is Cid's test pilot for Gummi Ships and his son could be one of Serah's students.
    • Snow could also be at the Olympus Coliseum. He is already obsessed with being a hero, so it would make sense that he'd beg Phil to train him.
  • Fang would be part of the Atlantis: The Lost Empire world as an atlantean warrior.
  • Hope is an intern working at the castle and is upgrading Tron's world to the TRON: Legacy version in a nod to his work with technology. Noel is traveling from world to world looking for something to save his Bad Future (again), the result of Xehanort's plan succeeding.
  • And Chocolina, just to mess with Sora's head.
• Noctis and Co. would fit right in with the all-black wearing residents of Radiant Garden. After the events of FFXV and unable to defend Eos against the Heartless, Nobodies, and Recusant, they found themselves in Radiant Garden to start over.
• Cosmos. Now this one's going to sound weird, but perhaps as A Form You Are Comfortable With Kingdom Hearts uses to help or encourage our heroes in a potential Darkest Hour scenario.
• Beatrix. Um, no particular reason for this one, but we can wish, can't we?
• Shadow. He's a character created by Tetsuya Nomura, he's a ninja, he can be a party member and take on pirates and ninjas are cool.
• The Weapons from Final Fantasy VII will be in as bonus bosses. Omega and Shinryu from Final Fantasy V will be in as superbosses and will be the toughest bosses to beat in the game.
• Ardyn Izunia. There's three possible scenarios for his depiction:
  • He will be the Superboss. Like Sephiroth, he was a total pushover for the final boss battle, so making him That One Boss could compensate.
  • If they do a world for Frozen, he will be an underling of Prince Hans, but turns on him before he could begin his plan.
  • If the theory of Noctis being in Olympus is true, he will be the boss of the World.
• The Tantalus Theater Troupe. A shady group of performers in the Tangled World.
• Cait Sith. He'll be a resident of Zootopia.
• Heroman, Joey Jones and Lina Davis. They'll be residents in the Danville portion of Tri-State Area.
  • Since Heroman is inspired by American Comic book Superheroes, why not Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Dove Cameron and Chris Evans as their voice actors in English? Imagine some Actor Allusion jokes and a little Shout-Out to Marvel Comics.
    • And maybe, a little Breaking the Fourth Wall joke where Joey told Phineas and his friends that it took a long time for him and his friends to introduce Everyone in America.
  • Don't forget to put Sonic Blast Man, Sonia and Captain Choyear in here too. Like Heroman, Lina and Joey, they'll be voiced in English with actors who worked on Media related to American Comic Book Superheroes, Adrian Pasdar as Sonic Blast Man (or maybe, Eric Loomis), Tara Platt as Sonia and Nolan North as Choyear.
• Heat, Kelly and Hiro. They'll be residents in the Tri-State Area.
  • Alternatively, they could be residents in Echo Creek.
  • If they would have voices in English, maybe we can reunite some of the Live-action Disney channel actors for them.
• Rico Rodriguez and Lara Croft. They'll be residents in Somewhere Else, like either the Swamptown part of Tri-State Area or something else like Australia.
  • Alternatively, they could be residents in Duckburg but as Animals.
• Wei Shen could be a resident in Zootopia as a Lemur.
• Sho Minamimoto: He'll be in San Fransokyo. This was based on a below theory that Shibuya will be there in this continuity. He'll be a student and academic rival of Hiro's at his University.
  • Aaaaaaannd, the winner is, nobody, unless you count the XV/Versus XIII reference.

Isa will be saved.

Because Lea will always be there to bring his friends back.

• Confirmed.

Alternatively, Lea will be Killed Off for Real by Isa/Saix.

The above WMG would be a waste of one of the best villians in the series, It's far more likely that Lea will try to reason with Saix, and Saix will brutally kill him. This would be a perfect Player Punch, and afterwards there will be an epic battle with Saix.

• Jossed.

Playing off of both the above Guesses...

Lea will try to get through to Isa/Saix, who is possessed by Xehanort, and seemingly 'fail'. A battle ensues, Lea pleading the whole time to 'Isa' to snap out of it, and not really giving it his all, unlike his ex-best friend. Saix will get in one critical blow, and while Lea's laying on the ground about to accept his fate, Saix will look at his face and something will trigger a memory of their time together as friends. The established power of the bonds we all make with our friends and the people we love with blot out the darkness, enabling Isa to finally break through the possession and take control of himself once again. But, like Riku, he will be stuck with the darkness-caused changes to his features at least for now. The heroes then march on to keep fighting darkness, holding close to them this important reminder that there's always a chance for the light to win.

• Lea defeats Saix and they talk about their past and Saix is happy to return to being Isa. They hang out together in the ending.

Alternatively, Isa/Saix will have a Redemption Rejection.

Isa represents what happens when friendships go wrong. The emotional abuse, the jealousy, the envy...It's the worst kind of relationship and nothing about Saix's actions are remotely redeemable.

The problem is that we don't know just how much influence a fragment of Xehanort's heart has on the host. Did Saix's feeling for Axel become twisted because he let his own insecurities get in the way of things, or was it Xehanort's heart that turned Saix into the emotionally abusive jerk we see in the series? Did he willingly accept becoming a vessel? (I personally don't believe he was, but we have to wait to find out and see)

If his actions were directly influenced by the Xehanort heart fragment without his knowledge, then to a point I think he should be saved. I think any victim of Xehanort who wasn't a willing follower should be saved. I do not think that means he should be forgiven for his actions. It would take something big in order to redeem himself.

If Isa was in control the whole time, then he has no excuse for anything and of course he shouldn't be saved.

• Jossed.

The Hot Rod Heartless will return, and it will be the enemy that Nomura said the heroes would be able to commandeer

Its already shaped like a vehicle.

Sephiroth will return as a Superboss

He's been a hidden boss in both of the main Kingdom Hearts games, so it would make sense they'd want to go 3 for 3. If the transition from his brief appearance in 1 to showing up for a few cameos in 2 is anything to go by, we may see Sephiroth play a much more significant role in the story. Most likely working alongside Xehanort, but as a Dragon with an Agenda.

• This time rather than being the Sephiroth created by Cloud's darkness, he will be the real Sephiroth, who fought Zack at the end of Birth by Sleep. He will have his original theme (Those Chosen by the Planet) this time.
• Jossed.

Charlie Duncan will be a summon

And she will be able to paralyze even the hardest enemies due to her adorable nature. Useful when going for the main bosses.

• Jossed.

The Replica Data from KHIIFM+ will become relevant in KHIII.

Perhaps they're foreshadowing towards a plot by Xehanort to create replicas of the Org. members for either empty vessels or as a way to taunt Sora and Co. by making replicas of Roxas or Axel.Besides, when does a Final Mix boss NOT become relevant in following games?

• Somewhat confirmed in the secret episode of Re:Mind, as replica data of the New Organisation are believed to hold the key to where Sora is.

Xehanort will be killed for good

After all the crap he's been delivering for years in canon, Sora and/or his friends will dispose of him permanently, leaving him no way to revive himself. After every character he's screwed with is brought back to life.

• Confirmed. He accepts his death and passes away into the afterlife with Eraqus.

By the end of the game, Sora will be left in a state that sets him up as a light-based antagonist for the next saga.

• Sora's struggles throughout the franchise are finally going to take their toll on the poor kid, leaving behind nothing but a broken man who will do whatever it takes to ensure no one like Xehanort comes to power again. Honestly, if they choose to take that route, I could easily see Sora becoming the RPG equivalent of Big Boss.
  • Jossed. The only thing we know about the series after KH3 is that Sora will still be the protagonist.

Sora will lose his body permanently to gain the power of Time Travel

Time travel will be required to counter Xehanort's own time shenanigans, but time travel has been stated to require the loss of one's body, and Sora is the only hero to be in a position to survive something like that, having done so before. Therefore, Sora will take one for the team and become a Heartless/Being of Heart once again.

Potential ramifications: Separating out his body will also free up Roxas and the writers could probably spin the situation to release Namine and Ven's heart as well. Freeing Namine could also allow her memory-witchery to bring Xion back. Becoming a Heartless may allow Sora to travel into the Realm of Darkness, allowing him to reach Aqua and Ansem and rescue them. Huzzah!

If he goes the route of becoming a Heartless, he would presumably gain some dark powers, making him a balance of sorts between Riku's affinity for Darkness and Kairi's Princess-of-Heart-edness.

Time travel will also allow Sora to reach past Disney worlds like Timeless River or the BBS worlds, or future worlds for movie sequels that have a time skip (e.g. Japanese Stitch! anime, though that's a bad example since the original Western continuity would be far more fitting for the Western fans).

• Kind of confirmed. He's lost to space-time or something after using the Waking power.

Terra will be the one to deal the final blow to Master Xehanort.

Because after everything MX has done to him, he deserves to deal some climactic payback.

• Jossed.

Roxas will...

• be perfectly polite when talking to everybody except Riku and anybody from the original Org XIII.
• appear about mid game with a Big Damn Heroes moment.
• be playable for a certain Optional Boss.
  • Confirmed for the Re:MIND DLC.
• will join the party and be useable on any world.
• gain his own body.
• Absolutely lose it (rage/confusion/loss of identity/etc.) when he sees Ventus.
• Turn out to actually be part of Ventus.
• Be an Exposition Fairy for Sora as part of his consciousness for a small part of the game.

this game will feature a larger party.

By that I mean that your party will consist of more than just Donald and Goofy. Riku and Kairi will be along for the ride this time and during the course of the game you'll run into the other guardians of light and team up with them.

• Semi-Confirmed. We only have seen world exclusive party members (Hercules, Woody, Buzz Lightyear) in addition to Sora, Donald and Goofy but the party size is now increased from 3 to 5.

Lea and Isa will have a face-off.

Isa, naturally, appears at some point near the climax of the story, barring Sora and Co.'s way. Sora will step forward to fight him, only for Lea to shove his way forward instead, because It's Personal. The two will engage in an epic showdown. Lea will either win or gain the upper hand and, either while their blades are locked or Lea has Isa at Keyblade-point, Lea will give an impassioned speech to Isa about their friendship and the evil of Master Xehanort's plans, or something to that effect. And just as Isa realizes the error of his ways, BOOM. His transformation into Master Xehanort completes. The newly formed Isa!nort will promptly curb-stomp Lea, which then prompts Sora to step in. And cue boss battle...

• Confirmed.
  • Doubly so in Re:Mind, where you can play as him while fighting ISA.

Aqua will be the first Keyblade wielder rescued.

Not only would she be the easiest to find, but it makes sense. Riku and Mickey are not strangers to the Realm of Darkness, and would be able to travel through it with ease— especially considering both of them are Keyblade Masters now—but also, Aqua's presence is necessary to be able to safely navigate Castle Oblivion and find Ventus. And then there's...well, wherever the blazes Terra is, since his body's Heartless and Nobody are both running around at the same time, now.

• At the end of 0.2, Riku and Mickey set off to save Aqua, so this is very likely. Then Riku and King Mickey encounter Aqua only to discover that they were too late. Aqua has been corrupted by darkness sporting white hair and yellow eyes and possibly possessed by Master Xehanort himself. They later return to the Mysterious Tower to reunite with Yen Sid, Sora, Donald, and Goofy...without Aqua.
• The "rescue" will involve a speech where Riku leads Aqua to understanding that Dark Is Not Evil thus leading to a case of Bad Powers, Good People. Hey, if the series is going to be serious about this Balance Between Good and Evil thing, then it is a logical step.
• Confirmed.

Kairi will be the one to finish off Xehanort.

After a Journey to the Center of the Mind, Kairi will obtain and master Namine's powers. Now, since Xehanort branded Sora with the recusant's sigil, Xehanort is now connected to Sora, which makes him vulnerable to Namine/Kairi collapsing his heart.

• Um, that sort of cold-blooded execution doesn't really sound like the behavior of a Princess of Heart.
• If Xehanort was at her mercy, you'd be right. But if it's in order to save Sora...
• Jossed.
  • ...And yet, Re:Mind somewhat unjosses this. True, Xehanort was still defeated by Sora, but the final boss has Kairi helping Sora against Armoured Xehanort. And she, along with Sora and the rest of the guardians, deal the final blow to them.

Xehanort isn't the Main Antagonist.

It's Actually Destiny Itself, Or maybe someone who's controlling the power of destiny throughout the Plot itself. Cue Sora punching the being into the Day Xehanort would have encountered Terra!Xehanort's Heartless. Sora then steals the book and befriends the Young Xehanort. The Two team up and fight the True Final Boss and close the book on destiny itself for good but as a consequence...

• He's the main antagonist of the game, but it turns out that Xigbar and the Foretellers have been playing him.

Sora will be stuck in the past and essentially cause a Continuity Reboot for the next saga.

With the book of Destiny and x-blade in hand, Sora perfects the world's balance and seals away it's power so that it could only be used in emergencies of dire ergancy. Throughout his days of Training with Xehanort and Eraqus under an Alias to basically prevent a nasty paradox, He places the Land of Departure inside The World that Never Was which was written into existance through the book, Sora then proceeds to add Traverse Town, Twilight Town, Radient Garden and of course, Destiny Islands. The Last thing Sora writes down is when Terra, Ven, Aqua, Riku, Kairi, Lea, Isa, Roxas, Xion, Namine, Vanitas, Xehanort's Grandson, and his Other Self would be Born in the New Timeline. Sora would tell the Story of Kingdom Hearts III as a bedtime story and not long after the story is completed, The Original Sora dies peacefully of Old Age with the knowlage that he has created a better world for Xehanort and with it, a better world for his friends...

The Post-Credits Scene has the Other Sora stopping by at his Former Self's Grave on his way to High School. He leaves behind a Disney Infinity Power Disc with Riku in tow. They have a conversation about what's inevitable and then they talk about the future until Kairi gets their attention and she says "C'mon, We're all waiting for you." Cue Namine, Lea, Roxas, Isa, Xion, Terra, Ven, Aqua and Vanitas in high school uniforms. Sora decides it's time to move on. They head off to School as the Original Ventus leaves behind a single rose as his heart has become the Spirit of the x-blade.

• He does go missing, but whatever's going on with him remains unknown.

Sora's specials or reaction commands will be based on theme park rides

• The first proper gameplay trailer shows two of these - a pirate ship that swings like a pendulum and a flying minecart that could be taken straight from Big Thunder Mountain.
  • The E3 trailer adds the teacup rides (the Pegasus chariot may fall under these or Morph Weapon, it's not really clear).
  • Both Confirmed and Jossed. The feature is called Attraction Flow and allows Sora to use Disney rides after fulfilling certain conditions (it seems to be connected to Flowmotion moves). However, it is not a reaction command. Nomura says that KH3 will not have reaction commands.

Young Xehanort will pull a Heel–Face Turn at the end of the game; or at least a Heel–Face Revolving Door.

Sora and his friends will have the younger Xehanort be on their side, but not without a final battle first. Maybe the final battle would involve taking out the darkness that is taking over his heart.

• Jossed, in fact he's one of the only members to continue being a complete tool.

Sora IS Kingdom Hearts

He already has so many good hearts within him. What if he eventually becomes this legendary utopia that the Organization sought? Which brings me to my next guess...

• Jossed.

Sora becomes the universe

His name means sky. And there is a repeated phrase in the series, that all worlds share the same sky. What if the only way to wipe out the darkness forever is for Sora, who is by all accounts pure, to pull a Tetsuo and become everything?

• Jossed. Sora is confirmed to still be the protagonist after KH3, meaning he cannot die or Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence.

The game will be split into 3 stories

Sora's story, Riku's story and Kairi's story. Each one will be looking to save Ven, Terra and Aqua, respectively. The stories might not be happening simultaneously, because we know we need to save Aqua before we can find Ven's body in Castle Oblivion. And then, like in the modern Sonic games, there will be a Final Story where you control Sora, which is basically the whole Lights vs Darkness/Xehanort fight.

• Can you imagine Riku giving an "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight speech to Terra?
• The game's official synopsis given at E3 says that Sora, Donald and Goofy will be looking for the seven guardians of light across the worlds and the Key to Return Hearts (whatever that is), while Riku and King Mickey search for the previous Keyblade wielders. So I would assume this is Jossed, but it's still pretty early to say for sure.
• Jossed. Although you do play as Riku while fighting a Heartless Tower and Aqua while fighting Vanitas.

Xion will change her name.

Both to get rid of the X and to assert herself as an individual and not a puppet. Bonus points if she says something to the effect of, "Call me Oblivion."

• Considering a big part of her Character Arc was actively defying the Organization's attempts to use her as a simple puppet, this seems quite possible.
• Jossed. Not seen in the game.

There will not be any world-specific party members in this game.

Instead, we'll have a Final Fantasy-style rotating party of six, consisting of Sora, Kairi, Riku, Mickey, Donald and Goofy. Any world-specific allies will function as non-party member allies, as were common in Kingdom Hearts II.

• Jossed. Nomura confirmed world specific Disney party members.

There will be swappable "Party Leaders".

Kinda similar to the WMG above, there will be a rotating party- namely you, the player. You can be playing as Sora one moment, then a few clicks of a button and joystick and a cheesy "Ready to fight!/I'll kick their butts!/(insert some Badass Boast)!"-style line later you're playing as Roxas/Kairi/Riku/Donald/Goofy/Mickey/Lea/what-have-you. NPC party members will run off of (hopefully) enhanced AI and the currently selected member will have more access to what exactly the character does, perhaps some more selective moves and special abilities. The current PC member will be referred to as a "Party Leader" during tutorials, and besides being the player character they can issue commands to the NPC party, so the name won't be just a moniker.

• Jossed.

This game will feature real crossovers, with worlds that are not in Alternate Continuity.

Roxas and Ventus's relationship

*Note: This is assuming that Roxas and Ventus will get their own separate bodies/selves/???

Initially Roxas will hate Ven's guts. No identity to call his own now- Ventus had his looks and voice way before him -besides his name and existence. Oh yeah, those belong to Sora, really; "Roxas" is "Sora" + an X and he owes his life to Sora pulling a Heroic Sacrifice. Similar personalities, except Ven has an easier time with people than the kind-of-a-loner Roxas? Fantastic.

So initially Roxas has a lot of hatred towards Ventus, who in turn is no where near mad. He's actually pleasantly surprised (Yay! A technical brother/twin! Awesome!) and a little guilty/sad/confused about Roxas loathing him so much.

But eventually- with the series running on The Power of Friendship and Roxas and Ven having to undergo some Teeth-Clenched Teamwork -Roxas lightens up to Ven and accepts them both for who they are and Ventus very quickly settles his feelings as a "Hey you said we're good so we're bros now and you gotta deal with it."

Cue a Bromance to rival Sora and Riku.

• Potentially they could become a set of Those Two Guys.
• They do eventually get their own bodies, but otherwise Jossed. We never even see the two interact.
• They do have a brief interaction with each other in Re:Mind during the fight against the Replica Xehanorts, and both are friendly towards and compliment each other.
  Ventus: Roxas, was it? You're pretty good!
  Roxas: Yeah, well... You're not too bad yourself.

Sora will get a Break the Cutie run that is WORSE than what he got in DDD

Potentially involving him hitting the Despair Event Horizon for the first time in the series. If that happens, to mirror it suddenly everything will seem a little lower than usual.

• Sora was shoved head first over the Despair Event Horizon in 3D. Xehanort was pretty darn thorough.
• A pretty big confirm, mainly in The Keyblade Graveyard. Watches all his friends get killed, gets them back only to be helpless to watch Kairi get killed for almost no reason, he's able to get her back but at the potential cost of his own life. At the very least his life with his friends.

Sora will pull a major Heroic Sacrifice

• Possibly Jossed (as far as a death would go) - Nomura says that he wants Sora to be the protagonist of the next game after this one.
• If not jossed, it will be the reason for his skill reset for the sequel
• Just cuz he sacrifices himself doesn't mean he can't come back. There's significance in how his heart is connected to so many, and has been a home to others who have been lost. Lea says he makes sure people remember him, and as long as he lives on in their hearts and memories, he is immortal.
• Confirmed.

Sora will have issues about killing Xehanort

Yes, the old man deserves it way more than a lot of other villains, but keep in mind that most of what Sora has killed so far could've been labeled in his head as "Monster". Xehanort is- while very f-ed up -a person just like him. A person with a heart, with a life. And with DDD'S revelations, this could apply to the New Organization as a whole. They all have hearts, they're all people, and with Sora's Messiah-like character, killing them will most likely not sit very well on his conscience, prompting him to find a way to eliminate their threat without ending their lives.

• He could also show some slight remorse for what he did to the Old Organization members who weren't truly evil and just going along with the plans to get their hearts back.
  • Or maybe not, considering that he was actually doing them a favor by killing them. Killing them ACTUALLY got their hearts back, and saved them from Xehanort, who was going to turn them into extensions of himself. He thwarted Xehanort's plans, got the underlings what they wanted anyway, and saved them from Xehanort, albeit painfully. No harm, no foul.
• Somewhat Jossed? He does try to get Xehanort to ultimately stand down, but he didn't really show any compulsions against finishing the job.

Terra, Aqua, and Ven will all have some semblance of PTSD in this game

Their Trauma Conga Line is bound to have some negative effect on their psyches. Perhaps Aqua will suddenly be afraid of the dark, maybe Ven will be less happy than he was and a bit of a Death Seeker at times, Terra might have some residual Terra-Nort/Xemnas/Xehanort's Heartless/??? in him that makes him prone to violence or random memory loss.

• Jossed for the most part.

Sora will receive a Disney Infinity figure to help promote the game.

Other potential characters include Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Riku, Kairi...

• To my eternal surprise, even as the OP, this might actually be a thing!
• More evidence! D23 2015 attendees were given exclusive Power Discs with Mickey's Kingdom Hearts outfit, and the Ultimate Unlock for this year is the Kingdom Key!
• Seeing as how Disney Infinity is being discontinued after the Finding Dory playset, this is Jossed.
  • However, it might get Averted if Warner Bros. (the new owners of Avalanche Software) wanted to revive the game, beginning with a Starter Pack for the remastered Compilation Trilogy that contains figures of Captain Jake, the Carol Danvers Captain Marvel and Indy, along with Sora.
    • Jossed.

There will be at least one death among the heroes

Roxas giving up his existence for Ven? Xion's previous heroic sacrifice unable to be reversed? Kairi (or another Princess of Heart) getting fatally injured with darkness? Unable to bring Terra back through any means and his Xehanort-possessed selves are already gone? Who knows, either way there is going to be some kind of life lost and it will make a huge impact on the story and Sora's character, most likely leading to a It's Personal moment.

• Confirmed. Kairi "dies", but Sora "dies" to bring her back. Sora's fate is unknown.

History repeating itself and the ending of a cycle will be a major force/theme

Sora himself will be the seven of light

Due to having so many hearts in him at one point or another Sora on his own be the seven of light. As of this writing Sora has had six heart of light in him at one point or another: himself, Ven, Kairi, Riku, Roxas, and Xion. With one more he will be seven hearts in one body against one heart in thirteen bodies.

• Would Naminé count as the seventh, since Sora's basically the reason she exists?
• Jossed anyway, as Lea and Aqua are part of the Seven.

There will be a Phineas and Ferb special like Mission Marvel to promote the game

The plot will be about Doofenshmirtz bringing the Heartless in the Tri-State Area, so Sora will help Agent P stop him. In a subplot, the duo will help Hope Esthiem (if you don't know why, shame on you), who is dealing with the death of his mother and getting bullied. So, they modify his toy boomerang as a self-defense weapon. Donald and Goofy see them in action and beg them to join their group. During the climax, Hope uses his boomerang to deal with the Heartless.

• Jossed. Phineas and Ferb ended with its series finale, Last Day of Summer.

Roxas and Xion will be allowed to exist separately from Sora

Remember how Ansem the Wise told Riku that Sora's heart may have the ability to bring back people who have been lost or no longer exist in Dream Drop Distance? He just might be on to something there.

• Confirmed.

There will be a Mission Mode

Seeing how the game is a partial Series Finale, it would be great to be able to play as every important character (The main trio, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Organization XIII (plus Dual Wielding Roxas and Lea separate characters), all Xehanorts, the Birth by Sleep characters...) in a Mission Mode like the one featured in Days. It could either be its own separate mode like in Days, or be implemented within Story Mode in a Mirage Arena-like setting.

The Dark Side and Twilight Thorn enemies will make a reappearance

• Maybe you'll have to fight one of each at the same time, even.
• Confirmed for Darkside who is once again the Dive into the Heart Boss. Jossed for Twilight Thorn.

Prince Hans has a Villainous Breakdown

Unlike Frozen where he's a sociopath who acts like nothing's wrong after Elsa heals Anna, he'll have a breakdown now that his plans in taking over Arendelle are ruined, letting in the Heartless. After Sora and gang beat him, then he acts like he did at the end. Sora's about to hit him with the Keyblade, only for Anna to get the final punch in.

• Jossed. He might as well not be in this game at all.

If Oz is a world, it will most likely be Oz the Great and Powerful.

It's more recent.

• Jossed.

There will be an Optional Boss quest between Sora and his friends

In some friendly competition and preparation for the difficult battles ahead, you go one on one with whoever would be weakest of the Seven Lights you've amassed, and slowly progress to whoever is the most powerful. It's an optional side quest that you can just pick up during peaceful times by going over to your next combatant and asking if they wanna fight. In the spirit of no cheating (don't want people to level up too fast) you can only trigger a fight after beating the previous combatant in the roster (although this is exempt from whoever is first in the chain).

• Everyone will also have unique boss themes that are original and made specifically for KH3 or the music will be entirely returning and revamped tracks for the fight; like Aqua faced with Hunter of the Dark playing, Riku using the same boss music as his fight in Days, Roxas with The Other Promise, Lea giving The Thirteenth Struggle a triumphant return, or facing off against Ventus with a twist return of Unbreakable Chains.

We already know the order of at least a few of the people to be saved and/or restored

It's right in the Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] opening: Roxas, Terra, Ven, and Aqua are shown in that order. I theorize that the order of rescuing these Lights will be this reversed, since it's easier to grab Aqua from the RoD so she can grab Ven from CO, then Terra can be brought back through friendship/magic/????(Terra getting back confuses me to no end), and then, after finding a way to spilt Terra from Xehanort and experimenting with heart restoration in a light sense, Roxas can be split from Sora and/or Ventus with little difficulty.

• Technically, Axel was the one that was saved first when he returned back to his original persona as Lea - The version of Re:coded included within 2.5 HD Remix reveals he was amongst those whose hearts were aching within Sora's heart.

Ventus will have of a freak out when he catches up with everything.

Mostly pertaining to the facts that:1) He almost died to stop the χ-Blade from being forged only for it to all happen again later2) (this depends on whether or not Terra and/or Aqua have been found) He almost died to keep his friends safe and they aren't anyways3) with his heart presumably still in its 100% light status (maybe more towards 90% but you get the idea) getting him involved may cause a χ-Blade no matter what anyone does which = Xehanort wins which may not be taken well

• Not really. He doesn't learn that Terra has been norted until Terranort shows up, though.

More non-Final Fantasy Square-Enix characters will appear.

Cue the gang of the The Bouncer having a role in the game.

• Alternatively Bravely Default
• Or even better (or worse), Caim and/or Nier.
  • Or maybe 9S and 2B. The new Organization XIII is investigating the bonds made with toys in the Toy Story world; maybe they'd be interested in other artificial beings—like androids.
• The World Ends with You cast will return.
• Grahf will appear as an Optional Boss.
• Maybe Aya Brea, with a Lighter and Softer version of the plot from her home game being a sidequest.
• Jossed.

Maleficent will use the Datascape to create Heartless of Light.

Data Sora's Heartless used Light yet desired Hearts to fuel it's Darkness. If Maleficant were to obtain the Datascape chances are that she'll tamper with it in order to create a new type of entity made of Light yet holding the minds of Heartless. Such being would devour the Light leaving the Darkness to consume what's left and thus be aiding the Darkness while under the control of Maleficant. These beings might even attack the Realm of Darkness exposing Aqua to the notion of Light Is Not Good.

• However, as they'd still be aiding the Darkness anyway, she'd probably see it as just Light Is Good corrupted by Dark Is Evil — thus only continuing to reinforce her already-abysmal opinion of Darkness.
• Jossed.

The opening song will be "Passion Orchestrated" and the end will be "Simple and Clean"

Similar to how DDD used "Hikari Orchestrated" for the opening and "Passion -after the battle-" for its end.

• Doubtful. More likely, Square-Enix will commission a completely new theme song.
• Perhaps both "Sanctuary" and "Simple and Clean" will be implemented into the opening and ending; both one after the other(end) and remixed together(opening)
• jossed.

There will be a crossover with Bravely Default

How the crossover would happen varies.

• Luxendarc would be an actual world and Sora, Donald and Goofy (and any other playable characters) go there to help Agnés, Edea, and Ringabel (Tiz may or may not be Adapted Out)
  • this Luxendarc would similar to the later loops where the Eternean Forces would not be villain save certain members
  • Orthros, Rhushaka, Chaugnar, and Gigas Lich would be retooled into heartless or replaced by Heartless expies
  • The visitable areas the party go to would be smaller and most of the dungeons and some cities would be cut.
  • The 4 crystals or the Holy Pillar together would be the keyhole and thus the various disasters are the result of the Heartless taking control.
• Alternatively the plot would be adapted to Traverse Town and the story would be that the Warriors of Light were sent there when Luxendarc fell into darkness. This leads into New districts of Traverse Town.
  • The cause of the fall would be Ouroboros or Xehanort controlling the heartless and targeting the keyhole by way of the holy pillar. Airy may or may not be an accomplice.
• Jossed.

Lea appearing where he did in KH3D is foreshadowing.

It's because Xehanort was responsible for the Start of Darkness of some of the Org XIII members - Lea and Isa had their hearts removed by a machine, the same one that Even used. Naturally the same machine was used several times... and Lea and Isa were the only ones who survived.

The ending will feature multiple Book Ends

They will refer to the very beginning of the series when you started out on the Destiny Islands, except this time much of the new cast will be included. There will even be a new raft, except this time symbolic of a whole new era of peace beginning or an adventure on the horizon or beginning anew rather than a means of escape like last time.

• You could say that the secret endings of Re:Mind has a Call-Back, but otherwise Kisses.

There will be multiple mentions of "I love you" and variations of it between the original cast, especially at the end

However most- if not all -of it will be purely platonic. Solidifying most of the group as True Companions with each other.

• Jossed, although they obviously do care about each other since they have emotional moments together.

The idea that anyone could become a 'Nort will drive tensions up the wall between everyone

Really the only one exempt from such suspicions and cautions would be Kairi for her Po H status and Riku for the explicit mention he's grown too resistant, but even then with some Insane Troll Logic to try and match Xehanort's Crazy-Prepared they could get a serving. Either way even Sora will have trouble placing full and absolute trust in anyone if anyone could become the enemy at any moment.

• Jossed.

We will get glimpses of Xehanort and Eraqus's apprenticeship

It honestly wouldn't make much sense to have this if that wasn't so.

The teaser's images are Xehanort on the left (identified by bangs and being associated with the first speaker, who seems to be YMX's seiyuu) and the one on the right resembles Eraqus, with tied back hair and a few wavy bangs (unfortunately we have no clue if that's his younger seiyuu for sure since he hasn't had one, so therefore for now there is no way to confirm this is indeed a younger Eraqus).

It's a teaser that suggests important plot details, namely snippets about the Keyblade War (implying the story is passed from Master to apprentice, the reason it was fought, "lost masters"- which is intriguing wording which seems like Xehnort doesn't think them as entirely evil for whatever they did, which for now I am saying is starting the first war). It also displays Xehanort's earliest intrest in the Keyblade War, so perhaps we will see flashbacks of what lead to his Start of Darkness without time travel involved.

• Confirmed in the E3 trailer.
  • Jossed since we don't really see anything outside of their chess game.
  • Although a new game may show this after all...

In a weird twist Xehanort will be his own spanner in the works.

Something will go down that causes Young Xehanort to turn on his older self and due to the nature of time travel in the series will cement Master Xehanort's defeat. Xehanort himself will lampshade this and it will also prove what Sora said in the first game to be true. "The Heart may be weak and sometimes even give in, but deep down there's a light that never goes out"

• Jossed, he's just defeated straight up but is at least a Graceful Loser

The heroes will lose

But this is a good thing. In the teaser mentioned above, it mentions a prophecy-type quote that darkness will win over the light. This is what happened in the last Keyblade War, shadowing the worlds in darkness. But the light in the hearts of children restored them. Sora and the others, through sharing so many connections and so much of their light, will be the "children" that restore the worlds. Xehanort, being the darkness that destroyed them, will either be outright killed or severely weakened, and will leave whoever was originally not Xehanort.

• Jossed.

The Destiny Islands will be attacked and razed by Xehanort

Because why not make it personal for Sora and show how far off the deep end Xehanort has gone.

• Remember the first game? Been there, done that. Bonus points for Destiny Islands being Xehanort's homeworld, too.
• Jossed.

Other Speculation 2

Kingdom Hearts secretly has a King in the Mountain/Physical God guardian, and they'll be the True Final Boss.

And they'll finally snap and go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against all Darkness because of Master Xehanort's nonstop meddling in trying to reach their home. Thus finally subverting the infamous Broken Aesop about Balance Between Good and Evil, Dark Is Not Evil, Light Is Not Good, etc.

• Jossed.

Xion will end up dying "properly"

She appears in DDD because of unresolved business and feelings in Days. She'll interact with Sora and eventually sacrifice the rest of her being, confident that the heroes will beat Xehanort and grateful to finally be remembered. She'll die on her terms, when she's finally ready.

• Jossed.

This game will wind up incorporating Drakengard or NieR.

Because come on, "On that land shall darkness prevail and light expire."? Sounds like Nomura might've gotten some inspiration from Taro Yoko. On that note, even with the Drakengard aspects lightened accordingly, Kingdom Hearts III will wind up being the darkest entry in the franchise.

• Maybe we could end up seeing Caim and Angelus as bonus bosses and perhaps getting bonus point for reenacting his introduction scene from Drakengard 2 but with heartless instead of soldiers. Another thing could be a plot with Nier and the Shadowlord incorporating much of the moral vagueness of the game and maybe mistaking the shades for heartless.
• Jossed. Although the part where Ephemer and the players of X help Sora fight one of the final bosses is reminiscent of Ending E from Nie R Automata.

The meanings/implications of "On that land shall darkness prevail and light expire."

Because it's specific enough for tinfoil hats yet vague enough to be anything. Why not make a list of theories and interpretations?

• The heroes will lose.
• A light will become a Nort.
• A world very dear to the heroes will be lost and they are powerless to stop it.
  • The world will most likely be Traverse Town (That world is a patchwork world that only exists because other worlds fell into darkness), Twilight Town (Sitting perfectly between the realms of Light and Darkness, it's destruction will also serve as a visual metaphor for Xehanort's newfound advantage), or Radiant Garden (In that case it would be more like reclaiming lost territory). Traverse Town would be the most likely.
    • Traverse Town's already long gone as far as the real world is concerned. The reason it's a sleeping world in 3D is because it's a patchwork, and all the worlds it was made from were restored at the end of the first game. If anything, other worlds falling into darkness would be more of an excuse to bring it back.
    • Why not Destiny Islands?
• A light will die.
• "On that LAND shall darkness prevail." At the risk of getting a little too meta, one of the new worlds in the game could be...Disneyland. We've already had Disney Castle and Disney Town, so why not Disney Land? As shown by the footage of Sora fighting using pieces of the Big Thunder Mountain ride, some parts of Disneyland clearly exist in the KH universe. The Disneyland-based world could be a darker, twisted version created by several other worlds colliding together.
  • Or a pseudo Mythology Gag for Epic Mickey.
• Uh... doesn't Riku and Terra's names both mean 'Earth'? As in... Land? And we both know what happened when both of them got exposed to the darkness.
• It's fulfilled prophecy. "On that land shall Darkness prevail and Light expire." is talking about The land of departure: Eraqus was extinguished and darkness took over.
• Or... It was a prophecy by one of the characters from the online game predicting the keyblade war and the event at the graveyard.
• Or my guess being that the Kingdom Hearts is pure darkness. But like I said, it is "Pure", free of evil and corruption and the whole elight expire could perhaps be put in relation to the "Sora becomes a dark being" guess above.
• Or on the off chance that "The Master is the traitor" and "the prophecies can be averted/disrupted/aren't real" theories are true, the prophecy could've been chicken scratch made by the Master...who will take Xehanort's place when Nort fails to make that prophecy come true.

Ventus will be a Shipper on Deck for Sora and Kairi

Presuming he wakes up, that is.

• Jossed. He doesn't make any comments about it.

The hearts of the worlds will play a larger role this time around

I don't know how for sure, but imagine Sora's heart-affecting abilities have found a way to actually interact with those hearts, leading to moments where he can effect his enviroment in ways he normally can't: like giving him admin access in a Tron based world, or being able to operate restoration machinery in Radiant Garden from a touch quite a ways away. He could tell the world what he wanted done and the world will comply.

• Or the worlds can pull in their strength and grant Sora access to every single keyblade he ever had access to, even the one's he lost for whatever reason, all at once during the final battle against Xehanort. Think Cloud's Advent Children Omnislash up to eleven.
• This could be part of the reason Sora can create Disney Theme Park Rides to use in battle.

Maleficent will undergo a Heel–Face Turn and her resulting form will be Jolie Maleficent

Because that way they can incorporate the Maleficent film without coming up with a bad excuse like there were two Maleficents.

• She doesn't even have to end up looking like Jolie exactly just redesigned to use the anime style of the Original Generation characters with features from both versions.
• Or she can be fatally wounded, Sora uses his power of heart to heal her, resulting in the Anime Style Middle Ground of both versions.
• Jolie Maleficent could be from another version of the Sleeping Beauty world (not a stretch, since all the Disney worlds are alternates anyway). Sora and the others wouldn't trust her at first, but once the original Maleficent shows up the difference will be obvious, especially that version of Maleficent's Aurora was already awoken from her sleep by Jolie Maleficent herself.
  • Alternativly, she could've become a heartless when her world was lost to darkness. What you face throughout the games is her heartless, and her nobody is slowly developing feelings and empathy for Aurora that she's desperately struggling to cope with.
• Jossed.

Ventus will be a Morality Chain for Aqua to a degree

Eleven/twelve-ish years in the RoD for what amounts to no reason added to Terra's successful norting and not very good opinions about Xehanort might lead Aqua to becoming more of a gung-ho Knight Templar with some greyer morality than the events of Birth By Sleep. Contrast Ventus, who- while probably understanding where she's coming from -has been asleep within Sora this whole time and is probably pretty unchanged and still the kiddo who knows what's right and looks for the best in others. Aqua always has Terra and Ventus first in her head, so with Terra somewhat out of that equation it'll probably be Ventus and his well-being overall doing the convincing for Aqua to not give in to darker ideas. Which won't be very good if Ven does end up getting hurt, or worse, norted.

• Jossed.

Sora will meet Goofy's son, Max

If Max is a young boy he'll be mad at Sora (and Donald to an extent) for keeping his Dad away for so long. If he's a teenager or young adult, he'll feel a little jealous at their close relationship. As a happy alternative they end up hitting it off and become Heterosexual Life-Partners. However, no matter what happens Sora will be thoroughly shocked that Goofy has a son.

• He would also be a knight in training. If Max appears, he would have a Forbidden Friendship with PJ.
• He and Goofy would have an estranged relationship, which would explain why he was never mentioned.

• Jossed.

We'll find out why Zira and her pride become outcasts

Simply because The Lion King II: Simba's Pride needs to tie up it's loose ends.

• The Lion Guard says the simple answer: Zira and her pride just got fussy over Simba being leader instead of Kovu because they like Scar more. Though that could be ignored since the Cinderella world ignores Anastasia's Heel–Face Turn in the sequel.
• Jossed, Pride Lands isn't returning for III, so it's doubtful that this plot will come up in spite of their world's absence.

Sora will meet a certain “Dark One"

After summoning Rumpelstiltskin in a time of desperation they'll end up bantering for a little while, with Rumple noting how odd Sora's universe is, and then things get serious when they strike a deal. In case you're wondering how this could be possible we must remember that Sora's version of Merlin is a time traveling reality warper and it's possible that the two have run into one another.

• It's also notable that Rumpel himself can travel between Worlds and that not all of the doorways in the show have been shown.

• Jossed.

Nightwish's Tuomas Holopainen will end up writing a song for the game.

Seriously, have you heard his Scrooge McDuck album? Someone at Disney will hire him to write the theme song alongside Usada.

• Jossed.

The series' trademark Mind Screw will be brought cranked up...

...By revealing at the end that the entire series was a movie being shot in the Who Framed Roger Rabbit universe!

• Jossed.

Lightning if she appears will have a role similar to Cloud and Auron from previous games

To be specific she will start out working for Hades (Possibly due to the fact that he might have another character from Final Fantasy XIII hostage.) but after you defeat her she may become a party member that helps you defeat Hades.

• Jossed.

Relating to the Rumpelstiltskin theory

• The reason Sora will summon him is so that he can learn how to take people's hearts. This is a skill some people in the OUAT verse have and Sora will need it if he wants to give Ven his heart back without turning into a heartless again.
• Jossed.

When you battle an Organization Member who has a personal connection to one of the Heroes that Character will be a Party Member

For example Lea when fighting Saix or Riku during the Boss Fight against Ansem Seeker of Darkness

• Confirmed.
  • And in Re:Mind, you can even play as them!

The Horned King will be one of the villains

He is incredibly popular in Japan and they have been trying to find a way to work him into the plot since the first game.

• As cool as this would be, Disney has all but disowned the film in the West and probably wouldn't want to give him a villain slot before other, more popular characters. That being said, there's a pretty good chance he'd be a Superboss.
• Jossed.

There will be a multiplayer mode.

In the vein of Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisition, it will be about a team of warriors and mages that Yen Sid deploys on missions during the main story when Sora and the others are busy. His magic train will be their transportation and they can be equipped with items that are Mythology Gags to Disney, Pixar, Final Fantasy and other Square-Enix stuff (Kim Possible mission outfits and Final Fantasy weapons like gunblades, for example). There will be an exchange between single and multiplayer in the form of items and experience as well as costume unlocks for multiplayer, but it won't affect the endings.

• Jossed.

Pre-Order outfits will be available as DLC.

Like the Final Fantasy XIII DLC but with actual stat increases like the Mass Effect 3 DLC costumes, with character's base outfits giving bonuses as well, ex. the Organization cloak can be worn by Sora, Riku and Kairi with defense bonuses against Darkness and Water attacks (because it's a raincoat) and Keyblade armor that increases general Defense/Darkness. For exclusives Kairi will have a Princess Classic costume (with a shorter skirt to avoid clipping issues), Riku his Vanitas-esque body suit and Sora a more mature version of his original outfit.

• Jossed.

New and Returning Party Members.

• Aqua
  • World, Castle Oblivion/Keyblade Graveyard
  • Stats, Medium HP, Low Strength, Mid Low Defence, High Magic and Good Agility
  • Abilities, Primarily uses more powerful versions of the spells that Sora has access to
  • Limit, Sora and Aqua launch a barrage of powerful magic spells in a circle around them
• Terra
  • World, Keyblade Graveyard
  • Stats, High HP, High Strength, Good Defence, Low Magic and Low Agility
  • Abilities, Mainly relies on his Keyblade with the occasional use of Darkness and Earth Magic
  • Limit, Terra and Sora will do a series of synchronized Keyblade strikes. They will occasionally create shockwaves causing meteors to fall from the sky
• Ventus
  • World, Keyblade Graveyard
  • Stats Low HP, Good Strength, Good Defence, Good Magic and Amazing Agility
  • Abilities Fights a lot like Sora but with Wind and Holy Spells added to his arsenal
  • Limit, Sora and Ventus use a Limit somewhat similar to Eternal Seisson from Kingdom Hearts 2 but 70% more Tornado
• Iron Man
  • World, Earth 199999 (Or whatever they call the Marvel World if its in this game)
  • Stats, Good HP, Mid Low Strength, Good Defence, High Magic (Irony) and Low Agility
  • Abilities, Primarily Attacks using Repulsor Rays and Lock-On Missles
  • Limit, Iron Man and Sora unleash a massive amount of projectiles around themselves that ends with a Unibeam blast
• Or maybe, Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel
  • World, New York City, New York
  • Stats, High HP, High Strength, etc.
  • Abilities, Various.
  • Limit, ranges from time to time.
  • And potentially, as a Playable DLC Character or Unlockable Playable Character.

The Foretellers are the Men Behind The Man for Xehanort.

They are hinted to be the Lost Masters from the teaser.

• Confirmed. Luxu/Xigbar was using Xehanort to advance their plans.

Worse they are the complete beings of Marluxia, Demyx, Luxord and Larxene.

Marluxia rules Anguis (Ambiguous Gender and has a floral Keyblade), Demyx is incharge of Leopardos (young looking), Luxord leads Unicornis (manly) and Larxene runs Vulpeus (female and has a cloud Keyblade). The Ursus Foreteller is either the only one without a Nobody or his Nobody is in hiding.

• Jossed. The Foretellers are their own characters, named Invi (Anguis), Gula (Leopardos), Ava (Vulpes), Aced (Ursus), and Ira (Unicornis).
  • Ironically, Xigbar is Luxu, just under a different name.

Yiazmat will be an optional boss

Being a denizen of the Realm of Light, Yiazmat's battle will have a ton of light-related spells flying around and due to its ridiculous amount of health in its source game, fighting Yiazmat will be long and as its health get lower, Yiazmat busts out new attacks (including character-exclusive skills) and alters its pattern, culminating in having access to EVERY SINGLE ATTACK IN THE GAME.

• Jossed.

Neither the heroes nor Xehanort will get to Ven's body

Instead a certain magic illuminati dorito will nab it and proceed to use it to cause complete chaos. Heck he could even fight with Xehanort over the right to an empty puppet while being persued by Sora and co.

• Jossed.

The Firebird will appear as a bonus boss.

Just as the title says.

• How about instead of a bonus boss, the firebird will play a similar role to Chernabog in KH1, an unforeshadowed final Disney opponent with little influence on the story. While Night on Bald Mountain builds up slowly, when the Firebird awakens in Fantasia 2000, the sudden eye opening and music practically make it a Jumpscare. If the Firebird makes a sudden appearance right before Xehanort or even between Xehanort battles, that will throw players for a loop.
• Jossed.

The legend about the Keyblade War is completely true

The inevitable war happens, and the worlds become plunged into the oblivion of darkness. However, like the children whose light restored the worlds to their current form, Sora and company come to the rescue. Whether it be through finding the true light of Kingdom Hearts or the light in our heroes hearts, a Universal Reset Button is pushed and the worlds are restored to their original state of legend: one whole universe with no vast darkness between.

To replace (or perhaps join) the legend of old is a tale about a boy with a Keyblade who brought the world back to the true light with the help of his True Companions.

There will be a new set of enemies

They will be called "Afterlives." They are formed if either: A. The Nobody is slain before the Heartless, or B. If an evil person dies. If the former, Marluxia, Larxene, Demyx, and Luxord became Afterlives, explaining their absences. If it's the latter, the final boss would be Xehanort's Afterlife. Once an Afterlife is slain, they reincarnate.

• Alternatively, they'll be called "Remnants," with the Vanitas Remnant being our first hint of them.

• Jossed.

There will be hints of Disney musicals in the worlds

Nomura did want to make Final Fantasy XV one after seeing Les Miserables, but since he got turned down on that one he might put those ideas into here. One song a world, perhaps? Maybe even a finale when you finish the plot for a world, just cutscenes where they sing with no mini game, or you know what just maybe off-to-the-side Easter eggs from NPCs in peaceful areas. Hopefully, they'll be much more enjoyable than KH2’s Atlantica.

• Jossed, although Elsa does sing "Let It Go".

Kairi will get significant Character Development

Through the fact that- through some means -she'll finally remember her life in Radiant Garden completely and in more detail. This might also be pretty key to the plot! Kairi probably knew the amnesiac Terranort, since he was the one who sent her to the islands in the first place, and such details might lead to an upper hand on the fight with Xehanort since the heroes will now know knowledge that Xehanort didn't anticipate them to find out.

What'll probably trigger this is her going to Radiant Garden, probably with Sora and/or Riku, since this time it can really sink in what this place is (didn't really stay long enough in Hollow Bastion to really learn the name or see much detail that could trigger her). Who knows, she might even get a sequence akin to Once Upon a December as she recalls more and more about her life.

Or maybe not. She was about four after all.

• Jossed

If Riku and Kairi are playable

Each character will have a different play style.

• Sora: His play style will combine the reaction commands and Drive forms from Kingdom Hearts II and the Command Deck from the later games.
• Riku: He will have both the Command Deck and Flow Motion from Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance].
• Kairi: Since she will be just learning how to use her Keyblade, her style will be based on the style of Kingdom Hearts.

In terms of stats, if we consider Terra, Ven, and Aqua to be the pure archetypes of Power, Defense, and Magic, then Sora, Riku, and Kairi can be hybrids.

• Sora would combine Terra's physical strength with Ven's speed and defense, which would make him pretty much the same as he was in past games, customization aside. Sora's drawback is that his magic would be the same as it was in past games, with neither Riku's darkness nor Kairi's light augmenting it.
• Riku would have Terra's power and dark attacks, but with Aqua's magic, his dark powers would be stronger and more varied than Terra's were, possibly adding Dark versions of Blizzaga and Thundaga to his arsenal. His drawback (much like in Dream Drop Distance) would be weaker defense and lower HP than Sora, requiring him to defeat enemies quickly instead of drawing out a battle.
• Kairi would, of course, be a mix of Ven's speed, light attacks, and healing abilities with Aqua's combat magic, but would be a bit on the fragile side (though making up for it at high levels) due to not having as much experience as the other two.
  • Riku confirmed as playable in a boss fight. Kairi is a party member.
    • Kairi confirmed playable in the Re:MIND DLC.

The final segment of the introductory sequence of Dream Drop Distance spoiled the climax of Kingdom Hearts III...

At the end of the game, Sora, Riku, and King Mickey will confront Xehanort, who will summon the Thirteen Darknesses and give himself as much of a high ground advantage as possible. King Mickey will then summon the rest of the Seven Guardians of Light(and anybody else he can think of that could possibly help within his power without it being too draining), and a Battle Royale With Cheese will commence.

There will be multiple endings, based on several factors:

• Which difficulty you're playing on.
• How close to 100% Completion you got to.
• Decisions the Destiny Islands Trio makes individually at various branching points.
• Things you did in the X.5 Remix mix games via Old Save Bonus and the X-Box or Playstation Network clouds.
• Whether or not you played Kingdom Hearts Chi, and what you did during your playthrough.

This troper makes this WMG due to the way the three founding partners of Bioware, and Casey Hudson, the main creative force behind Mass Effect were poached by Square-Enix in recent months and years to work on unknown Square-Enix properties.

• Unlikely considering the series will continue after KH3, meaning there has to be a canon ending. The X-Box does not have the HD Remixes meaning it could not be implemented. Also forcing players to buy other games to get better endings is a dick move.
  • Although, since both 1.5 and 2.5 are now available on PS4 and Tetsuya Nomoura did confirm that the PS4 version of KH3 will have "exclusive content", it's not out of the question that Old Save Bonus might somehow come into play after all (even if it doesn't affect the ending in any way)...

• Completely jossed.
  • Re:Mind does have two different endings for the secret episode, but it all boils down to if you beat Yozora or not.

There will be Final Fantasy-based DLC costumes

And they will have special weapons relating to that character.

• Sora: Cloud Strife, featuring the return of Metal Chocobo.
• Riku: Cecil Harvey. He will be wearing his Paladin costume. If he is able to use Dark Mode again, then he will wear his Dark Knight armor.
• Kairi: Lightning Farron. With the announcement of Keyblades that can act as projectiles, it would be perfect for Kairi to have a Keyblade modeled after Lightning's Gunblade.
• Donald: Vivi Ornitier.
• Goofy: Kimahri Ronso. He will have a shield that's basically a comically over-sized version of one of Kimahri's armlets.
• King Mickey: The Warrior of Light.
• Lea: Reno. Yeah, I know it's predictable.

Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls will either be a bonus boss or be involved in the plot somehow

In Gravity Falls, Bill Cipher is an Eldritch Abomination who's main power is over dreams. His most recent episode had him looking for a Vessel. He's also implied to be aware of the Fourth Wall and that he creates the ciphers the viewers see. He's also talked about how Vagueness Is Coming, but it's uknown if he's seeing the future or knows about the plans for it. Or even if he's a good guy with a REALLY twisted sense of humor and looking out for his own interests, or if he's a villain.

Let's see, Kingdom Hearts has the "Dive to the Heart" in almost every game, which usually takes place one the character is sleeping. The most recent game literally to them to the realm of sleep. Ven is currently soul less, a perfect vessel for Bill. And he can know about the future.

If he's a Bonus Boss, he shows up in a Dive to the Heart and convinces Sora to look for Ven. For Ven's own interests, of course. Bill then tags along in Sora's shadow and possesses Ven. Either you fight Bill in Ven (who is using Ven's BBS power set) or Bill and Sora take turns taking over the bodies so you will fight occasionally as Sora in Ven facing Bill in Sora. You could also need to find the Journals to unlock this battle.

Beating him unlocks the Secret ending where Bill is talking to the next villain.

Or it could be revealed that he's playing the Org and Team Keyblade against each other. He made deals with both and he's trying to get them to destroy each other.

Finally, every time he's on screen, the captions will be run through a cipher. If you solve the cipher, what the cipher says is not at all what Bill (or whomever he's talking to) says. However, he makes sure to give a hint to the player so they know how to decipher it.

• Jossed.

Wonderland will be burned to the ground by Xehanort.

The remains will look like the Tim Burton film. This would fit with the darker tone Nomura wants for the game.

• Jossed. Wonderland isn't in this game at all.

Master Xehanort's new voice actors...

With Leonard Nimoy and Chikao Otsuka down for the count, who are they gonna get to replace them?

• English: Probably someone like Corey Burton or Jim Cummings, but preferably not since they're already doing a lot of the "old man" voices and they're starting to blend together.
  • Possibly Christopher Lloyd?
  • Maybe William Shatner. His voice is old and raspy enough to fit Master Xehanort. The casting would also keep the Star Wars and Star Trek meta-gag.
• Japanese: You can't replace Chikao or Nimoy. Have Master Xehanort silently age himself down to a body in say his 30's, and have Braig/Xigbar snark about it.
  • They probably will replace them though. It's been done before with other series.
  • I would say Kotaro Nakamura. After all, he's the new voice of Dr. Eggman, and he does a damn good impression of Chikao Otsuka's voice.
  • All Jossed. Chikao's son Akio replaced him.
• English: Maybe Tom Kane or even Robert Englund (Master Xehanort does have some Freddy Krueger vibes)?
  • Alternatively, maybe Christopher Ayres? There are similarities between Frieza and him. He would be the next Funimation actor to work for a Disney product.
• All jossed. It's Rutger Hauer.
  • The earlier Christopher Lloyd theory is confirmed for the Re:MIND DLC, due to Hauer's untimely death six months after the base game's release; Flashback with the Other Darrin is in effect for Xehanort's reused cutscenes. Hauer's performance in the vanilla game is kept, however.

Chernabog will be revealed to be in semi-league with Xehanort

The big guy's Satan and nobody's more made of darkness than him, besides Vanitas, anyway. Lets say Chernabog basically lends the Dark Seekers extra Heartless to help plunge the universe into darkness. The National Bank of Bald Mountain, as it were. Come on, you know you want another boss fight with this guy.

• Jossed.

The final battle will involve two X-Blades: Xehanort's and the original

Xehanort's plan is to combine seven lights and thirteen darknesses into a new X-Blade. It doesn't take into account that there already was one that was destroyed in the Keyblade War. There's been plenty of speculation that Sora and Mickey's Kingdom Keys are somehow related to the X-Blade. Maybe they're the broken remains of the original (with some pieces cobbled together from Ven's/Vanitas' failed X-Blade), and rebuilding the original X-Blade will be essential to countering Xehanort's X-Blade if his plan succeeds.

• This almost makes a disturbing amount of sense. Especially since Xemnas was able to create an Artificial Kingdom Hearts in 358/2 Days and Kingdom Hearts II, it would make sense for Xehanort to be able to make an artifical X-Blade.
• Ultimately Jossed, just one X-Blade, wielded by Xehanort.

Terra has a Heartless somewhere in the worlds

When Young Xehanort surrendered to darkness, Xemnas was created from his body and soul, and 'Ansem' from his heart. But as there were two hearts in there—Master Xehanort's and Terra's—Terra's Heartless must still be somewhere out there. And with the degree of darkness inside of him, odds are it's not a pushover.

• This troper was under the impression that the 'Guardian' used by both Terranort in BBS and Xehanort in the first game was, in fact, Terra's Heartless - it appears alongside both, suggesting it is not simply an extension of Xehanort's Heartless, and appears to be bound to his will, evoking similarity with his possession of Terra's body. He first manifests it when fighting Aqua, a situation in which whatever is left of Terra in Terranort would be struggling against Xehanort's will. IIRC, it even has it's own version of some of Terra's moves. This would also mean it becomes the World of Chaos, half of the final boss of KH1 - and there are some minor similarities between WoC's head and Terra's helmet that support the idea. Not a pushover indeed.
  • Except when you get to the Battle in the Center of the Mind portion, Terra is shown to exist separately — and even helps you Combination Attack the Guardian. If anything, the Guardian could be considered Xehanort's equivalent of Vanitas's Unversed and/or Terra's Lingering Will.
• Confirmed.

The final boss will take place inside the true Kingdom Hearts.

The first game's final boss took place in a black void that contained the door to Kingdom Hearts, though we never saw much of what lay beyond it other than a massive horde of heartless that we never got to fight, and KHII's final boss took place inside the artificial Kingdom hearts that Orginization XIII created. So if Xehanort somehow managed to forge the χBlade and summon the TRUE Kingdom Hearts, having the battle move from the Keyblade Graveyard (or wherever Xehanort wants the 7 lights and 13 darknesses to clash) into Kingdom Hearts itself would make the final boss of III that much more epic!

• Jossed.

Arendelle may not appear as a world, but Elsa could be a Summon.

I've heard Frozen shan't be getting its own world, but it is possible that Elsa could act as a Summon, even getting a variation on Shiva's signature Diamond Dust (under a different name, of course) as a reaction command in addition to powerful Blizzard magic. No, not Elsa and Anna as a team, just Elsa. And even if Arendelle does end up as a world, Elsa could still act as a summon (and it would, naturally, be a snowflake charm).

• Jossed. Arendelle is a world and Elsa is not a summon.

Darkwing Duck may someday appear, but as a character in Disney Town.

Because Disney Town I guess isn't weird enough yet and they already have his VA on payroll to do half a million other voices. Also it would be awesome. Well, despite the fact that it's unlikely, as he's a TV Show character, and they don't have those in KH (unless you count characters from shorts as being tv show characters), but I can dream just like Gravity Falls fans can.

• Or he could be a summon. Sora would grasp the summon charm (with Darkwing Duck's sigil on it) and summon him. There would be smoke, and then he appears. They both have a Back-to-Back Badasses moment and, as a Pre Ass Kicking One Liner, both Sora and Darkwing say his iconic Catchphrase; "Let's get dangerous!"

• Jossed.

Maleficent will rally together the Disney Villains against Xehanort at some point before or during the final battle.

After being played as the pawn by the Big Bads throughout the series, Maleficent will come the realization of how much see has been used by Xehanort and how her only chance at universal conquest is to eliminate his interference. She will try to organize a council of villains from each world, but will encounter setback from Sora and his friends’ intervention, Pete’s bumbling, and Xehanorts own influence. Her main motivations won’t be seen until up to the finale battle where her presence will ether stale or influence the end result of the battle. The motivation for the other villains involvement will be how Even Evil Has Standards.

• Jossed.

This game will be a full fledge Crisis Crossover.

• Jossed.

One of Sora's Keyblade transformations will be a chainsaw.

It'll be the ultimate Development Gag, since he was originally supposed to wield one.

• Jossed.

Worlds and their plotlines.

Feel free to add to this.

• Agrabah: An adaptation of the king of thieves this time around things leading to a boss battle against a Heartless Sa'luk inside the moving island.
• Beast's Castle: Troubles with heartless in the forset bring problems to the town and the castle ending with a Wolf pack style boss.
• Castle of Dreams: Lady Tremaine's heartless appears and terrorizes Cinderella. the gang shows up and puts an end to it.
• Dwarf woodlands: The evil queen is back empowered by the darkness she uses the heartless to try and achieve her goals.
• Enchanted Dominion: The gang takes the fight to Maleficent on her home turf.
• Wonder Land: The dark seekers power corrupts wonder land Sora and co rush to save the land, leading to a fight with a heartless Jabberwocky.
• Olympus Coliseum: Concerned for their friend Sora and co. go to check on herc only to find Hades using the Four Elemental Fiends in his latest bid to take down Hercules. Features the return of zack now a full fledged hero.
• Castle Oblivion: while recovering ventus Sora uncovers the full truth of his lost year. Boss fight is a battle in the center of the mind as Namine's guardian persona tries to take over.
  • Alternatively, it will be possible to replay the stories from completed worlds.
• Twilight town: A search for clues amongst Ansem's possesions leads to the truth of the mansions original owner.
• Atlantica: one Year Inside, Hour Outside Time Skip later, Sora helps Melody out with certain issues. While another Keybearer helps Ariel look for Melody
• Pride Lands: On another Time Skip, Sora helps Simba quell tensions between newly exiled lions and the pride. They also meet Timon's Aunt and Uncle as well as Kiara and Kovu
• Tangled: The gang drops into a new world and find Rapunzel's tower while fighting the heartless. From there Sora and co get roped into helping Rapunzel go see the floating lights ending with a boss fight against either Marulxia's somebody or a heartless boss.
• Atlantis: The crew turns up just before the Atlantis crew finds the lost city. After exploring for a while Roarke's theft of the great crystal sends Sora and co go to retrieve the crystal, ending with a boss fight against crystal corrupted Roarke.
• Gargoyles: Sora and co land in a new world. Rumors of monsters see them hunting on the roof tops where they meet the Manhattan clan. The stage ends with Sora teaming up with Goliath to take out a horde of heartless Steel clan.
  • Except for Twilight Town Olympus Coliseum and Tangled (which are confirmed) and the new worlds, most likely jossed. Nomura says most most of the Disney worlds will be new.

The ending will be similar to the finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Sora will "depower" Xehanort and imprison or banish him, like how Aang did the same to Ozai, instead of outright permanently destroying him. His powers of darkness will be taken away, his keyblade will side with Sora, and all of his forms will disappear forever. He will remain there for the rest of the series with no further focus or mention and the plot moves on. This, or something to this effect, is how I hope the game ends.

• Jossed.

Terra will sacrifice himself to destroy Xehanort once and for all.

It is heavily implied that Terra will be brought back one way or another, but he has been merged with Xehanort for so long that it might be impossible to release him completely without harming is. So, what it's possible that perhaps after the very final boss fight, Terra's soul inside Xehanort will be awakened and he comes back temporarily, but he knows that Xehanort is still fighting even though he's weakened and it will not take long for him to take over once again; which is when Terra decides to pull a Heroic Sacrifice to destroy both himself and Xehanort once and for all. He could also do it as a mean of redeption considering that he blindly trusted Xehanort during the events of BBS, which brought down a 12-year-long coma state and stay in the realm of darkness for both of his best friends respectively, as well as the death of his master and father figure.

• Jossed.

There will be no need for a balance between Light and Darkness

Instead the game will be a deconstruction of Light Is Not Good and be a epic reconstruction of Light Is Good.

• On the positive side, it would finally resolve the infamous Clueless Aesop about Light and Darkness. But on the negative side, many fans would probably be unhappy about the games seemingly wasting so many years preaching Balance Between Good and Evil/Yin-Yang Bomb.

The Book of Prophecies will play an important role within this game

• After all, Mickey Mouse was seen summoning forth Roxas, Ventus, Terra, Aqua, Donald and Goofy from a book within the opening sequence to Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] so that they could fight Xehanort alongside him, Sora and Riku within the Keyblade Graveyard. What's to say that book isn't the Book of Prophecies?
• To add, the book was mentioned in he added scenes of Re:Coded within the 2.5 remix, establishing a reason for why Maleficent wanted the Datascape. And Bringing forth a possibility that Jiminy's Journal might be one of the Books of Prophecies

Jiminy's Journal is the Book of Prophecies

Kingdom Hearts χ states that the cards being used by players come from the Foretellers using the Book of Prophecies to call upon the powers of heroes from the future. Why then would the book fixate particularly on Sora and his group of friends, unless the book itself had recorded them? It's a vast universe and an infinite timeline to draw from, and "there are no coincidences in fate"...Dream Drop Distance already confirmed the existence of a form of time travel within the mythos - and while its rules may restrict an Ominous Message from the Future, it's not the first time Sora and Xehanort have come up with unconventional workarounds to "universal rule", or found alternative paths of travel.The Journal could have been sent back into the past before Sora went on to his final battle with Xehanort; the final entry has been doctored before the events transpired, to force actions by former Keyblade wielders in the past (perhaps even instigating the first Keyblade War), as well as put Xehanort on his path...

Xehanort's plan to make Sora a Recusant will backfire

Xehanort will finally go through the process of inserting his heart into Sora's body - the natural conclusion to an arc about a villain who pulls Grand Theft Me to survive and an All-Loving Hero who acts as a carrier for all of his friends' hearts - but that's where his plan falls apart. Sora's remarkable ability to form connections with others will overpower Xehanort's force (helped by Xehanort stretching himself thin over a dozen other bodies). Perhaps it could be represented by a Battle in the Center of the Mind, with Sora aided by all of the other hearts inside of him, or even representatives of all of the connections he's made fighting Xehanort. Ultimately Sora engulfs Xehanort's heart, meaning Xehanort handed a "purified" fragment of himself to Sora on a silver platter.

• Jossed.

This game will confirm that Xehanort has been manipulated all along by...

... a former master of his Keyblade, or perhaps even the goatheaded Keyblade itself.His is said to be the oldest Keyblade to presently exist, and to have a mind of its own. What if it (or someone inside of it) has been using the laws of time travel - that it must have a body at both its departure point and destination - to influence events before Xehanort ever got his hands on it?If the sixth Foreteller managed to pull one of Xehanort's classic Grand Theft Me tactics on a Keyblade, he could piggyback off of it to be anywhere in its history - which would also explain his disappearance during χ.

• Confirmed. Xigbar/Luxu is the original owner and he's been using Xehanort as a tool this whole time.

Galactus will appear as a Superboss.

• No one is more aggressive with seeking out other worlds than him.
• Jossed.

The final battle will involve time traveling into the past

This will the end story with the undoing of all the major events in the Kingdom Hearts timeline. This allows for the new saga to happen.

• But Young Xehanort said one of the rules of time travel is that you can't change events that are destined to happen. You can temporarily pull people from one time and place them in another, but eventually they go back to their original time.
• Uh...well, this one needs explanation. Sora ultimately does travel a little into the past to undo the immediate defeat of the Seven Lights. After that, SDG take on Master Xehanort in Scala ad Caelum which is basically frozen in time.

Riku will fight Aqua.

We know from E3 2013 that Riku will be tracking down the trio from BbS while Sora handles protecting the seven lights. Do you think the Keyblade Master who had it drilled into her head by her Master that darkness is unquestionably evil, watched her friends and Master fall to darkness, and was trapped herself in the Realm of Darkness for over a decade will react very well when a Keyblade wielder who uses darkness approaches her?

• Seemingly confirmed that they'll fight, but because Aqua has become a Seeker of Darkness. Riku is seen in the background of the trailer clutching his arm.

Jossed but not for lack of trying. A Demon Tower fends off Riku before he even gets a real chance to fight Aqua, Sora is the one who faces off with her.

Xigbar/Braig will turn on MX.

He won't commit a full-on Heel–Face Turn, but he'll botch most of MX's plans to benefit his own. Based on the recent comments he's made on the 2.5 ending ("That Xehanort guy creeps me out", "Whatever, I've got my hands full with my own plans"), and the fact that Braig always seemed to me somebody who plans ahead for his own but he doesn't show it to others, hence his laid-back/unassuming appearance he shows most of the time. I'm guessing he's in this only for his own benefit (to get the Keyblade) and once that's done, he's off for himself. Maybe he's finding flaws in MX's plans after all, and he'll make such a move it'll cause part of MX's plan to crumble. I doubt he'll ever be a hero, but he could always work as a shady character doing his own things and weaseling his way around the different worlds and so, causing hindrance to the heroes.

• However, since he has part of Xehanort's Heart, he'll have to find a way to bypass Xehanort's Villain Override ability first (kind of hard to betray someone when you're psychically bonded to them, after all).
• Confirmed. Xigbar has been using Xehanort to advance the Master of Master's plans.

Demyx, Luxord, Marluxia and Larxene will finally return in this game.

It may be a stretch, but these characters are quite popular on their own and for years people have begged to know more of them. This would be the perfect game to reintroduce them as their Somebodies and tells us a little more of their backstories/names, motivations, and what they're up to nowadays. Since they're not from Radiant Garden, they're not bound to be with the Apprentices, however they would be available for the new Org. Some of them could even change alliances and join Sora's team, or more realistically, they could work as sorta Anti-Villain/Anti-Heroic figures whom Sora meets up with during his travels. It would be an interesting experience to see Sora talking with any of these four.

• Confirmed for Marluxia, Larxene, and Luxord.
• The newest trailer confirms the return of Demyx as well.

Ephemer will be one of the seven lights.

Sure thing, Ventus himself appears to be Really 700 Years Old, so why not?

• Jossed.

Ava's Dandelions will return from the other world just in time for the final battle against Xehanort.

• Confirmed in a way. Ephemer and the Dandelions help in spirit against one of the bosses.

Eraqus and Xehanort's Master and the Foretellers' Master is the same person.

They are both Masters who are mentioned but aren't seen and it was stated that the Keyblade War was Eraqus and Xehanort's Master's "favorite story" and it is the Master's favorite because the Master was there to witness it.

• Alternatively, the Master of Xehanort and Eraqus is the traitorous sixth Foreteller.
• It's not likely that they are the same person, as revealed in Back Cover. It is likely, however, that it could be the sixth Foreteller.

The inevitable Secret Ending won't just serve as a teaser for the next KH installment.

The Secret Ending begins with Sora and co getting back to their normal lives, only for the camera to zoom out and reveal that it is simply a hologram-esque live feed playing in a bar-like setting. Two otherworldly figures watch intently and provide "where are they now" commentary before discussing the philosophical implications of the events which have just transpired: how light could prevail over never-ending darkness, the unwavering power of love and friendship even in the midst of betrayal/tragedy, the finicky nature of prophecies, the way that the world can go back to relative normalcy after such a calamitous event, etc. One of the men turns to the other, revealing himself to be Sanae Hanaekoma, and asks the other if he thinks that the conflict between darkness and light has finally reached its conclusion. Joshua replies that he doesn't know, and remarks that as long as humans exist, darkness and light will occupy the human heart in balance - but that the individual can decide through their actions whether the light or darkness dominates them. Hanaekoma expresses surprise at Joshua's response, noting that he's far more optimistic about human potential than he used to be. Joshua only shrugs, simply stating that a friend proved that to him long ago, and that he's finally ready to see him in the RG again. As Joshua leaves the Dead God's Pad, Hanaekoma calls out that it's about time as the camera lingers on the floor, the shadows casting the unmistakable silhouette of a Player Pin and the words "Time 2 play the Game again".

Two to three months after KHIII releases - just enough time for a large chunk of consumers to experience the ending for themselves and generate internet buzz - Square Enix finally, finally confirms that they've greenlit and begun development on a sequel to The World Ends with You since Tetsuya Nomura and co. have no major games in development for the first time since the release of the original.

• Well... you're a bit off...but closer than expected. Mainly that Sora and Riku in some capacity end up in Shibuya where we legitimately could see the cast of TWEWY again. However the main hook is that Verum Rex, the Game Inside The Game shown during Toy Box...apparently actually exists as we see Yozora.

Luxord's original Somebody will play a role in stopping Young Xehanort

This one's mostly just a big ol' guess due to the fact that Luxord had time-manipulation abilities, like Young Xehanort (although he does seem to use his more for games and less for time travel and stuff). It'd be a good way to introduce Luxord's Somebody into the story, since we've only ever seen his Nobody form, and to get some extra character development for an admittedly quite interesting member of the original Organization. Besides that, it'd just be cool to see the Kingdom Hearts cast beat a villain with a method besides "Keyblade them until they disappear into darkness" - maybe they outsmart him and beat him at his own time-manipulation game?

• Jossed. Luxord's Somebody doesn't show up at all.

All the bosses and superbosses from the other games can be fought.

They will be Data versions you can fight like battles against the data copys of Organization XIII.

• Jossed.

Master Xehanort will promote Braig to the rank of master as a backup plan.

In case Xehanort loses his powers or his life, Braig will given Xehanort's Keyblade and knowledge, so Sora and friends don't get them.

• Jossed, although Xigbar was waiting for Xehanort to bequeath his Keyblade to him at some point (but for other reasons than everyone thinks). Sora and Riku think Xehanort was being an Unreliable Narrator.

Sora will make Donald and Goofy Keyblades wielders.

He will make them Keyblade wielders, like Terra made Riku a Keyblade wielder.

• Jossed.

The Tornado Titan will be a boss.

It was apparently going to be in the first game but they cut it because they didn't think they could do it justice with the graphics, that's not an issue anymore.

• Don't forget the Lava Titan as well.
• Confirmed!

The game will get a Nintendo Switch version but updated akin to Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

The thing might actually be out for a year or two by the time KH3 is.List of Newer Content for the Port:

• Some of the DLC Worlds.
• Custom Music and Themes, imagine a Person with "This Will Be the Day" being used as the Battle theme.
• Newer Playable Characters such as Phineas Flynn, Deadpool and Star Butterfly along with Carol as Captain Marvel.
• Exclusive Summons like Heroman and Princess Sofia.
• Newer Bosses, like Galactus.

The Foretellers will be in the game as Data Bosses.

• Jossed.

At the end of the Dark Seeker Saga, Sora will have a much more somber personality

Maybe someone close to him will have died at some point (or a similar fate) and/or maybe having so many people inside him will finally begin to take their toll on him. Either way, by the time the next saga starts, Sora will no longer be the cheerful hero we all know.

Riku and King Mickey will be trapped in the Realm of Darkness while trying to save Aqua.

And Sora will be the one to save all three of them.

• Confirmed, though Riku and Mickey are less "trapped" than...about to be killed.

And maybe Ansem the Wise too.

• Jossed.

You'll get to play as every Guardian of Light, and maybe Lea

Specifically, you'll play as them when fighting the Seekers of Darkness, and perhaps Riku or Mickey going to find Aqua. If you do play as Lea, it would be in a fight against Isa.

• Jossed.
  • At least in the base game. Re:Mind adds in bosses where you play as the Guardians, so it's unjossed.

The 0.2 opening shows what will happen when Aqua is saved

Aqua is getting ganged up on by Venitas and Terranort, who would be two of the Seekers of Darkness, and Mickey would jump in in order to save her, having separated with Riku for one reason or another, and they take them out of the picture.

• Jossed, she does fight those two but after already being saved. She's ultimately saved by Sora.

The Prophecy is not about the events of Kingdom Hearts X and Back Cover.

The Master's prophecy refers to a traitor among a group of six apprentices. This traitor will spark a Keyblade War on a fated battleground. On that day, darkness will prevail and light will expire. These prophecies refer to Xehanort, not the first Keyblade War.

• And the "apprentices" will turn out to have been Xehanort, Eraqus, Yen Sid, Terra, Aqua, and Ven all along.

Between the events of Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts 1, Xehanort becomes one of Ansem the Wise's six apprentices. Using the No Name keyblade, which the Master uses for his prophecies, he betrays the other five. In Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance, we learn that he plans to spark another keyblade war. And in the trailer for Kingdom Hearts 3, he clearly believes that the prophecy of darkness prevailing will happen in the future.

• The Master of Masters states that the traitor is the one who bears the sigil, most likely referring to the Recusant's Sigil. On his original outfit as Terranort, he has it on his clothes. Although it's unclear if he has it after becoming an apprentice.

The guest star party members are the summons.

Nomura said that summons are going to be different this time around, so instead of characters like Genie or Chicken Little, Sora might be able to summon Rapunzel, the Big Hero 6 party member, etc. after beating their world.

• The E3 2017 trailer shows Hercules as Mt. Olympus' party member. Interesting to note here is that he hasn't replaced Donald or Goofy and fights alongside the entire trio. While this could easily suggest exactly what it looks like on the tin (that the player doesn't have to swap out party members anymore), an alternative explanation is that guest star party members and summons have had their functionalities merged. When a character joins your party, instead of replacing Donald or Goofy on the field as long as the player is in their world, they become a summon for the rest of the game while still having their own HP, MP, and customizable abilities. Admittedly that's looking way too much into the trailer, but it's still possible.
• Jossed. Nomura confirmed that the summons are separate from party members.

Alternatively...

The summons are Dream Eaters.

In Kingdom Hearts χ, every Keyblade Wielder has their own Dream Eater companion, and so will Sora again, still retaining access to multiple species. They could be utilized with the "Link" command seen in recent screenshots.^note Kingdom Hearts 3 D Dreamdrop Distance's Link command... commanded the Dream Eaters in that game.

• Confirmed, though they only take up one link slot with the other slots featuring the usual Disney characters.

The black box seen in Back Cover will be crucial to the game's finale.

Specifically, it contains the means to rewind time to a certain point, erase all of the events that came before it and manipulate reality itself, but with unforeseeable consequences. It was designed by the Master of Masters himself as a last resort, should things get too crazy at some point (like worse-than-apocalyptic crazy), but because of its unpredictability, he deems it too dangerous to use as a first option. However, despite his instruction not to open it, a future apprentice of Luxu's will notice the final battle between the thirteen of darkness and the seven of light and, fearing that another Keyblade War will wage and tear the universe another new one, will open the black box and undo all of the events in Kingdom Hearts, rebooting the series to the point where its Kudzu Plot becomes easier for everyone to understand. That particular apprentice in turn will become the new antagonist of the next saga.

Or perhaps Xehanort has the black box and, noticing that he's about to lose, opens it and reshapes reality. However, in the process, he accidentally erases himself from existence, not realizing the consequences of opening it. It would still reboot the franchise though.

• Or maybe the box contains the Master of Masters' body, with what we saw of him being his spirit and mind. He'll use the time travel established in 3D to get to KHIII for some reason.
• Confirmed in that it's a Sequel Hook.

Sora IS Kingdom Hearts...or he will be.

If Kingdom Hearts is a union of all hearts of worlds and people, then it can't have ever existed. Back in the time of the Chi games, all the worlds were one, but the people were deliberately kept divided by the Master of Masters. But everyone seems pretty sure that Kingdom Hearts could eventually be made.

Enter Sora, a boy with the important and supposedly impossible ability to absorb and contain a seemingly endless supply of memories, hearts, and entire beings from other people without even noticing he's doing it. If this power goes out of control, Sora could meet the definition of Kingdom Hearts. Xehanort may actually be counting on this as a last resort, resulting in a True Final Boss battle between Xehanort with the X-Blade and Kingdom Hearts Form Sora, with everyone's hearts on the line.

After all...

Sora: What do you think it was — The Door to the Light?

Riku: [Pointing at Sora's heart and the crown-shaped pendant over it] This. It's always closer than you think.

• Jossed.

If Scrooge McDuck appears with a speaking role, he'll be voiced by David Tennant.

As Tennant is taking over the role for the DuckTales reboot, he'll potentially voice the character here if he shows up. It also lets the actor assimilate more into the role by voicing him in a place besides the show.

• Jossed.

Goofy is the True Main Antagonist.

Goofy is typically portrayed in most of the works he's in as slow or dim witted, and yet in this game series he's seems quite sharp, way smarter than Donald or Sora. Perhaps......perhaps it's because he's the bad guy, perhaps he is manipulating Xehanort behind the scenes, walking with Sora and Donald to keep an eye on them. After all, you keep your friends close......and your enemies closer, not to mention he will immediately know of their plans of he's with them the whole time, allowing him to change his plans in response.

• Jossed.

There will be a Sequel Hook that involves the Thirteen Darknesses...the ORIGINAL Thirteen Darknesses.

From what we know in the games, when the X-Blade shattered, it went into 20 Fragments: 7 of Light and 13 of Darkness. The 7 of Light became the hearts of the Princesses of Heart. Xehanort has spent his time trying to make 13 Artificial Fragments of Darkness by using his own heart and spreading it amongst 13 other Vessels.

Even if the Heroes do defeat Xehanort and stop his plans, it doesn't necessarily mean that the threat of the X-Blade is over. Afterall, if the 7 fragments of Light became the Princesses, then what of the Fragments of Darkness? What if they became people too?

Possible Speculations for the true 13 Darknesses:

• Scar - His heart was so full of Darkness he managed to keep his form even after becoming a Heartless, something someone as rotten as Ansem was capable of.
• Lady Tremaine - Her Heart is outright confirmed to be devoid of Light. Not to mention she managed to create two Unversed from her murderous feelings (the Symphony Master and Cursed Coach), something that by all means only Vanitas should be capable of since he's the one who makes them.
• The Evil Queen - She simply wanted Snow White dead out of her own vain desire to be the most beautiful of them all, and is willing to do whatever means to harm her or those who disobey her (like when she forcibly made the Magic Mirror fight Terra).
• Jafar - He was warned by Maleficent herself not to delve too deeply into the Darkness lest he become a heartless, which means something coming from Maleficent. Not to mention after defeating his human form, he is screaming in agony as he turns black, to which right afterwards he wishes to become a Genie. As a Fridge Logic post in Kingdom Hearts 1 points out, it could've been him NEARLY turning to a Heartless, managing to stop it and wishing to become a Genie as an emergency procedure so he'd never become a Heartless.
• Syndrome: The most evil Pixar villain ever.
• Claude Frollo - His heart was easily swayed by the Darkness when he genuinely thought of it as "God's Wrath", and he willingly destroys a city and was going to destroy a place just for his ego. Not to mention like Tremaine, he's responsible for the creation of a huge Nightmare which can easily lay waste to the area. Not to mention he wasn't technically "killed" in Dream Drop Distance. His world was a sleeping world, so he could be fought for real in another real.
• Maleficent - Do I need evidence for her heart being nearly pure darkness? Not to mention it would grant her a major antagonist role again, which would win her some desired recognition.
• Gaston - In Kingdom Hearts X, the Darkness in his heart is great enough that he storms the Beast's Castle with Heartless that he's summoned, and he even manages to create a HUGE heartless known as the Enraged Elk, not unlike how Tremaine and Frollo have operated.
• Hans - His sociopathic behavior in Frozen speaks for itself.
• Mister Oogie Boogie - The same arguments about Maleficent also apply to him.
• Yzma: Her Image Song is "Snuff Out the Light."
• Arawan The Death Lord/The Horned King: Tied with Maleficent and Chernobog for "Scariest Villain in the Disney Animated Canon."
  • This whole WMG is jossed.

Vanitas will return in the Toy Story world, but he's not the missing darkness

Young Xehanort's statement in the D23 trailer ("One heart's shadows fill the emptiness of another.") outright references Vanitas's Meaningful Name and origins. Who Xehanort is talking about in that line is Vanitas, and the phrasing of the next ("See how they bring him to life?") certainly implies that he's in the process of being reborn somehow. As many have noted, while not identical the mark seen on the Gigas mecha toys that Sora can commandeer strongly resembles the Unversed symbol.

Vanitas isn't the missing darkness that's then spoken of by Xehanort, because he isn't missing anymore.

• Jossed. It's YX in the Toy Story world.

The missing darkness is Repliku

His artificial nature is what's drawn Young Xehanort to the Toy Story world - Repliku, like Andy's toys, is a created being with a heart. The D23 trailer placing this "missing darkness" line immediately after one that appears to be about Vanitas is a misdirect intended to make viewers think it's Vanitas - more dialogue is happening between Xehanort's two lines than just Sora asking what he's planning.

All the party members from the previous games will return.

They will appear to help Sora in the final level as the cavalry to help Sora and his friends.

• Jossed.

All the Final Fantasy final bosses will appear.

They will all be optional superbosses.

• Jossed.

The clock town in Twilight Town will serve as a semi-major plot point

In Kingdom Hearts χ, when the Daybreak Town belltown went off, that signaled the start of the Keyblade War. Not only does Twilight Town’s clock tower have a similar design, but it has two huge bells right on the sides. Assuming Xehanort wants to start the second Keyblade War in the same vein as the first, then it’s highly possible the clock tower will serve as the bell to signal the Keyblade War’s start. As though we needed another reason to cry around the clock tower.

• Jossed.

The game will be released on July 13th.

Because 7/13.

• Jossed.

Your character from X will appear via Character Customization.

Perhaps since the secret ending of the browser version implied the protagonist was brought to the present.

• Jossed.

The game will explain why Ansem Seeker of Darkness actions were against Master Xehanort's plan.

It will be explain that despite being an intelligent Heartless, he still has the Heartless instinct to take hearts from other beings as well as hearts from worlds and destroy them.

The Key to Return Hearts...

... is Master Xehanort's own Keyblade, inherited from Luxu and the Master of Masters. The Master of Masters noted that the Keyblade he gave to Luxu didn't have a name, so "No Name" isn't official, just a choice Luxu himself made to call it. We don't know what its true purpose is, but if the Master of Masters was able to use it to extract Keyblades from hearts, while Master Xehanort was able to extract his own heart with it (a power that Sora needed to borrow Ansem SoD's special Keyblade to do), who knows what other heart-related powers the oldest Keyblade secretly has?

Guest Party Members from previous games will be summons

With the Ariel Summon seen in the Feb 2018 footage, that seems like a way to show off a lot of non appearing characters like Aladdin, Jack Skellington, and Simba. Heck, maybe even Tarzan....

• Jossed. It's just Ariel, Simba, and Stitch who return.

The game will have New Game+

Seeing as Final Fantasy XV had the same after an update, it seems only logical to assume that a main KH title will finally get this. Also, I read that 0.2 had it, so it only makes sense that Nomura will put it in this game as well to both keep game play time going, as well as to give players a power fantasy. This'll also work if he lets us increase the level cap, or just not have one in the first place.

DLC costumes/items for the cast of characters

If Nomura does do DLC, here's some ideas of what he could do.Costumes:

• Sora in both his new and Limit Form outfits from KHII and maybe his dream outfit from DDD. I mean, why model the KHII costume for 0.2 if you're not gonna use it outside of maybe the opening level of this game?
  • Alternatively, Sora's outfit having a Shout-Out to Captain America and other Avengers.
• Goofy in his regular clothes and knight armor.
• Donald with the same as Goofy.
• Riku in his KHII attire, which is just an aged version of his KHI attire, or his black robe from KHII. His different haircuts. A Noctis costume, since his clothes are heavily based on his.
• King Mickey in his regular outfit from the Disney canon & the end of KHI, his robe, his king outfit.
  • Alternatively, King Mickey's new outfit having a Shout-Out to Luke Skywalker, an another franchise owned by Disney.
• Maybe swappable outfits for the main characters from the other main characters, like if Sora can wear Roxas' clothes from II for example.

Items:

• Keyblades from passed games not in this one (possibly accessible if you played the 2 PS4 collections prior).
• A Keyblade that uses elements of a Lightsaber and weapons inspired from Kamen Rider.
• Palette swaps of the Kingdom Key to make it King Mickey's.
• Final Fantasy weapons in place of Keyblades for Sora.
• Final Fantasy summons and maybe, Deadpool as a Game Breaker summon for Sora.

• Maybe there could also a command system like FFXV, where you can command your partners directly like Noctis does for his friends in a future update.

The game will have more comedy like KHII to balance what will be a very heavy in drama story

Let's face it, Kingdom Hearts is a very depressing series of games. Many people have played through the series and either stuck around because they like the lore, mythology, &/or main characters, or the gameplay, or they quit at some point because the series is far too depressing. KHI and Chain of Memories had pretty downer tones and endings, KHII tried better to keep the adventure feeling joyful and succeeded a lot with the characters reacting, in an over-the-top manner to, or straight-up lampshading, the more ridiculous retcons and additions to the story that game made, but 358/2 Days has a pretty downer story, Birth By Sleep, both of them, end pretty sadly, and Dream Drop Distance, even though there was a point to the game, is kinda sad in the revelation of the time travel plot point. Plus, basically everyone in the Union X game is Doomed by Canon to die in the Keyblade War. Nomura has been trying to combat this a little, mostly in the gameplay department, but there's only so much you can do before people actually pay attention to the dialogue and storytelling and turn away from the series. However, with some of the worlds already revealed in the game having themes about sticking through tough situations, Toy Story, and proving your worth despite being an underdog, Hercules and Big Hero 6, the game will have underlying themes of a brighter future and will be pretty lighthearted a good portion of the time and have some good comedy to keep the mood light until the inevitable drama rears its ugly head (remember, this is a game that's gonna have Terra, Aqua, Ventus, apparently Roxas and Xion, and others come back, plus elaborate more on the Xehanort stuff and defeat him finally), so Nomura will try to soften the tone to be more uplifting than some of the most recent previous entries into the series.

• Confirmed depending on your sense of humor.

Xehanort's Plan will fail on a single loophole.

Xehanort's plan basically amounts to "Get 13 Darknesses together, bash them against 7 Lights, make X-Blade, ???, profit". The way he goes about getting 13 Darknesses is to get 13 other people, replace their heart with his and voila.

That is actually the loophole here. All 13 people's hearts are the same heart. He may have 13 bodies, but they're only one Darkness if they're all basically the same person. Because of this simple error, all of Xehanort's plans will have been for naught and he will spectacularly fail because of it.

• Jossed, plan works just fine. Apparently the X-Blade isn't very picky about it.

The game will explain how Ansem's encoder destroyed Ansem Seeker of Darkness.

Since only a keyblade can slay a Heartless, if anything else is used it will just reform later.

• Jossed, the encoder is never brought up again.

Potential summons

• Spider-Man (if anything related to Marvel other than Big Hero 6 is going to appear, why not their most popular character?)
• Darth Vader (same as above)
• Past Disney party members, like Ariel was, such as Aladdin or Jack Skellington.
• Following the theme of certain abilities and attacks mirroring Disney park rides, Figment, the Dreamfinder, or both could appear as summons.
  • All jossed except for past Disney members.

We will finally get to see Sora's Mom

• Jossed.

If The World Of Chaos returns, it will be pallette swapped.

It will become shades of blue and black. So that it looks more like the other Pureblood Heartless.

• Jossed, does not show up at all.

The winners of the Union X cameo contest will be...

• High scores to beat in the Classic Kingdom minigames.
• Listed on a Keyblade War memorial.
  • Jossed. It's like Ending E in NieR Automata.

Other Speculation 3

The "other Riku" is a time traveler.

• We learned the mechanics of time travel for the KH universe in Dream Drop Distance. You can only travel to a point in time you've been to before and cannot make any significant changes. Riku left his damaged keyblade in the sand so that either a past or future Riku will have a weapon on hand that would be easy to put back how he found it and not change history too drastically.

The Dandelions will return as a Sequel Hook.

After the whole Xehanort incident is finally put to a close, the remaining Dandelions Ephemer, Skuld, Brain and Strelitzia will be ejected from the world inside of the Book of Prophecies, as a result of Maleficent's schemes.

• Jossed — the Book of Prophecies isn't shown at all. However, Ephemer's spirit shows up to lend Sora a hand during the battle with a massive Demon Tide, helping call upon hundreds of Keyblades whose owners have long been dead and unleashing them against the Tide.

The Seeker of Darkness Aqua...

Is not Aqua at all. Instead it's Ardyn disguised as Aqua, who's either on Xehanort's side, Maleficent's side, or his own side to spread dissent among the light side. Additionally, the FFXV boys will show up in some fashion.

• Or a darkness illusion, or she's just damaged and not Xehanorty.
  • The Realm of Darkness does throw illusions at people to wear their hearts down, not to mention this would be a pretty big twist to show off in a trailer, unless there's something more to it. If this scene is set before the scene shown in the other trailer, with Riku leaving his damaged Way To The Dawn behind, then Mickey and Riku are too relaxed for that to have been Aqua.
• She might be possessed by the World of Darkness directly (i.e. not through Xehanort), and the Darkness itself is using her as a mouthpiece: either to tell Mickey and Riku that it's not on board with Xehanort's plan, either, or that Xehanort is just another Unwitting Pawn to itself, like every other villain we've met. The reason she looks like Xehanort is because that's how the Darkness affects all of its hosts.
• It seems unlikely for the Seeker of Darkness Aqua there to be a Xehanort at all. For starters, Xehanort already knows the Guardians of Light are a few members short, and Princesses or no, it would actively work against his main plan to add his final member from their dwindled ranks. Second, if Aqua was a Seeker of Darkness, why would she still be in the Realm of Darkness? Even as a pawn to Xehanort, his first order of business would be sending her to locate Ven after all these years.
• A Square Enix rep said in a stream that Aqua has been 'corrupted' by the Realm of Darkness from spending too much time there, which rules out Nortification - which also means the damage may be more easily reversible.
  • Additionally, Realm of Darkness corruption isn't necessarily a bad thing - Ansem the Wise showed signs of similar corruption after spending significant time there completely exposed and retaining his identity through sheer force of will, and aside from his need for vengeance driving him to be more of a Knight Templar Fantastic Racist, he was still firmly on the side of good. If Aqua can be brought to her senses, she may be more or less back to normal and ready to take the fight to Xehanort.
• Or maybe it's actually Phantom Aqua from A Fragmentary Passage toying with Mickey's fears that maybe they have arrived too late.
  • Jossed. It's the real Aqua, corrupted by the darkness until Sora literally beats it out of her.

Aqua's recent Darkness corruption will ironically push her even closer to becoming some kind of Light Is Not Good Knight Templar.

• As has been said before, her Eraqus-taught views on Light and Darkness have only been reinforced over and over by the Dark Is Evil-heavy Trauma Conga Line she and her friends have endured for years. And now she's forced to endure You Are What You Hate despite all her efforts to stay Light Is Good, on top of it? This could very-well be the straw that broke the camel's back — driving her to do something drastic and/or Pay Evil unto Evil-y in the Final Battle against Xehanort, fueled by both guilt over succumbing to the Darkness and the desire to prevent future Darkness-based tragedies (especially like the ones she, Terra, and Ven have all endured).
• Jossed.

Aqua corrupted Baymax.

• She commanded The Heartless to corrupt Baymax to hinder Sora and Co.
  • Jossed.

The box Luxord is looking for the Dead Man's Chest, which contains heart of Davy Jones.

• Luxord and his allies (whether it's the 13 Xehanorts or the other Organization XIII members) are probably wondering how and why a man would cut out his own heart and put it in a box, all for the love of a sea goddess.
  • Luxord is one of the 13 Xehanorts.
• Jossed, he's looking for the black box. (He does initially mistake the Dead Man's Chest for the box they're actually looking for, but Vexen later confirms it's not the right one.)

Maleficent will recruit new members for the Disney Villains group:

• Emperor Zurg
• Hans, promising him the throne of Arendelle
• Mother Gothel, offering a way to maintain her Youth without Rapunzel
• Marluxia since they were trying to overthrow Xemnas, they decided to join up with Maleficent's group
  • Jossed as it's literally confirmed that he's are on Xehanort's team
• All jossed. It's just Maleficent and Pete.

Sora will be on Anna's side when revealed her engagement to Hans

• hHe's actually met the Disney princesses and their love ones who had only met recently so he would take it better than Elsa and Kristoff did..... Until he sees how Hans really is like.
• Jossed, he doesn't really get involved with the majority of the Frozen plotline, and never even meets Hans — he catches a glimpse of him from a distance once or twice, but that's it.

Vanitas will become a Guardian of Light.

Heroes And Heroines medley teases at Vanitas having a redemption arc. If a character like Master Aqua who was seen as pure light to make the X-Blade by...Vanitas himself and she changed sides becoming pure Darkness, what's stopping Vanitas from following Aqua and doing the inverse? Although Vanitas may feel conflicted as he may not want to hurt Aqua again.

When Vanitas calls Aqua a "spare", is he talking about raw materials for making a X-blade?

Nomura: Yes. She was a "spare" prepared in case Ventus did not survive the fusion process with Vanitas. Aqua was recognised by Eraqus as a legitimate Keyblade Master who viewed light as absolute, and holds a strong heart of light. So if Ventus were to fail she could have been used as material for the X-blade.

• Jossed.

Roxas will die.

It is heavily implied that Xion is the XIII Seeker of Darkness due to Axel dropping her into Xemnas's lap right before Xion's battle with Roxas and Roxas is sought out to be brought back. Xion's mere existence is a danger to Roxas' own. Roxas wants to be brought back by the Organization so Xion can absorb Roxas. Unless Xion can stop herself from absorbing Roxas's powers and his being, Roxas is screwed.

• Jossed.

The Black Box is hidden in the Old Mansion in Twilight Town.

The mansion is connected to Ira. There is a blocked room leaving what's behind it unknown. The Black Box is in that room. And Master Aqua figured it out long ago andalready stole it before everyone else can get their hands on it.

• Jossed.

The "New Lights" Larxene refers to aren't related to or able to replace the Princesses of Heart

They aren't replacing the Seven Princesses nor are they the Seven Hearts within new bodies for protection, but seven lights who work very differently from the Princesses of Heart because their hearts are not the fragments of the χ-blade, but something else. This means their hearts cannot be used to rebuild the χ-blade, but serve a different purpose. It's possible they can purify hearts that have been consumed by Darkness, which is something the Princesses aren't capable of (but they can keep Darkness at bay), and would be a reason for Xehanort to hunt them down. Their hearts aren't the displaced fragments of the χ-blade, but something more. The Princesses of Heart may even still be relevant.

• Jossed. They need a new Seven because the original Princess of Light (minus Kairi) apparently gave up their powers. They're only to be used as a backup plan in case the Keyblade Wielders fail to obtain a team of seven.

Aqua is turning into a Darkling

A Darkling is a creature that is born from Keyblade wielders who succumb to the darkness in their hearts. Sounds awfully similar to Aqua, now doesn't it? Not to mention, this screenshot◊. We see the darkness creeping up her arm almost as though transforming her, and her hands have a bit of a red tint to them, almost like claws.

• Jossed.

The main character from Kingdom Hearts χ was turned into a Darkling.

They're on the box cover. You can see them by Sora's legs and they're holding a star.

• Jossed, but they’re still technically in the game, as the ending of X reveals the player character wound up becoming Xehanort.
  • Further jossed by reveals in Dark Road. They were reincarnated as the person who raised Xehanort.

Demyx is working for Ansem the Wise's apprentices.

Vexen stated to Demyx that something is all part of someone's plan and Demyx helps them out such as bringing stuff they need to Ienzo.

• Jossed. Although Vexen is the one who is a double agent.

The character from X will appear via Character Customization.

Probably a long shot, but since the secret ending of the browser version implied the protagonist was brought to the present, it could be possible. And besides, Ventus fought in the Keyblade War.

• Jossed, though given what we now know about what happened to the player character from X, only on a technicality.

Kairi will be the playable character during the tutorial.

Akin to how Roxas was the main character of the prologue in II. Sora may be hit by Bag of Spilling, but he's still hardly a rookie at this point, so it would be kinda silly to treat him like one. Kairi, however, is still a newbie when it comes to the Keyblade, so playing as her wouldn't stretch suspension of disbelief.

• Jossed.

Tadashi Hamada will be resurrected through connections in order to provide Sora the info he needs to bring back Roxas

According to HipsterSora: “I wonder if part of the BH6 world will be about bringing Tadashi back. What Hiro said really mirrored Sora's quest to return Roxas, and a small theory would be that bringing Tadashi back from data and heart connections may lead to the breakthrough needed to bring Roxas back. This would make Roxas' return rather lategame though, as far as Disney world first visits are considered.”Link: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/718920-kingdom-hearts-iii/77017917

• Jossed.

The series will be reset after this game.

Going on what was said above, Xehanort will open the path to Kingdom Hearts and cause The End of the World as We Know It, rupturing the already damaged realm of light. Thus, the final boss will be Xehanort jacked up on heart power, only for Sora to use the power of his friends (as well as those of the worlds destroyed, since the heart survives after death) to match and destroy Xehanort once and for all. At that point, Sora will use Kingdom Hearts to recreate the universe, except no one remembers what happened due to Xehanort being erased from existence. That's how we'll be able to keep having adventures and still explain Sora's most recent case of Bag of Spilling.

• Jossed.

The Titans fought in the first game were just minor avatars. The ones in Three are the real deal.

In the manga, Hades comments to himself how he could use the Keyblade to free the Titans from "maximum confinement" (Tarterus). What we fought in One were just echoes; shadows that slipped through the cracks in the seal. It may be tied to the Underdrome that he tricked Sora into unsealing in Two.

Xehanort was lying about wanting a world of pure light.

He was trying to convince Sora to let him go so he could continue his plans unopposed. Of course, Sora didn't go for it, and defeated him. A future game will involve Sora having to adventure into the true afterlife to stop Xehanort from corrupting Kingdom Hearts from the afterlife. Makes more sense, at least.

Yozora is a past incarnation of Sora

DLC and Secret Bosses

• Galactus as the True DLC Final Boss
• Ernie the Big Chicken
  • Imagine the Boss Fight of Ernie being a Shout-Out to the Godzilla movies.
• Thanos
• Apocalypse
• Darth Vader
• Sabretooth
• Magneto
• Dormammu
• Blackheart
• Zeus
• Akuma or M. Bison
  • Capcom and Square-Enix made a crossover between Monster Hunter and Final Fantasy in Final Fantasy XXIV and it worked, so why not do the same with Street Fighter and Kingdom Hearts?
• Venom
• Cloud of Darkness. Why not have the final fantasy creature that appears whenever light and darkness are shifted out of balance show up as a secret boss in a Square Enix game where one of the themes is the balance between light and darkness? Hell why not have her show up in the Realm of Darkness as a shout-out to the game where she originated from? Gosh, imagine how "This Is The Final Battle" would sound!

And potentially more.

• All jossed, at least for the base game. The only cameo superboss at launch is the Schwartzgeist in the second Gummi map.
• Still jossed for the DLC, as the superboss for that is Yozora.

DLC Playable Characters

• Phineas Flynn
• Deadpool
  • Bonus points if Ryan Reynolds reprised his role.
  • His mode will be the hardest of ALL EVER MADE in Kingdom Hearts history. Double Points for Rated M for Manly.
• Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel
• Doctor Strange
• America Chavez
• Star Butterfly
• Luxu
• Ryu or Chun-Li, as who wants Kyle Herbert and Laura Bailey to reprise their roles in a crossover between Street Fighter and Disney once again.
  • Alternatively, if Square can't just use Street Fighter, they could use Asura as well.
• Roxas
  • Confirmed.
• Kairi
  • Confirmed.
• Xion
• Lightning
• Noctis

World Speculations

Confirmed worlds

• Big Hero 6
• Hercules
• Tangled
• Toy Story
• Monsters, Inc.
• Frozen
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Winnie the Pooh
• Twilight Town
• Mysterious Tower

Disney properties and beyond to be integrated into Kingdom Hearts III.

Bold the winning guesses.

• The 7D
• Andi Mack and/or Lizzie McGuire
• Brandy & Mr. Whiskers
• A Bug's Life
• The Buzz on Maggie
• American Dragon: Jake Long
• Arjun: The Warrior Prince
  • It would be a Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros." moment if it were to actually happen.
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire
• The Avengers and/or Avengers: Infinity War
  • Or maybe a Marvel world where you team up with Spider-Man, he is one of the most popular Marvel characters in Japan.
  • Alternatively, why not begin with Black Panther?
• Bedknobs and Broomsticks
• The Black Cauldron
• Boy Meets World and/or Girl Meets World
• Brave
• The Brave Little Toaster
• Brother Bear
• Cars and/or Planes
• Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
• Coco
• Club Penguin
  • On top of the game being a bit too childish for the series' main target audiences, the game ended in 2017 in favor of a mobile successor. Plus, thee series hasn't been relevant in years.
• Darkwing Duck
• Dave the Barbarian
• Descendants
• Disney Channel Live-Action Universe
• Disney Fairies^note Which would be Neverland except a larger emphasis on Tinker Bell and fairies. Maybe it could be a separate world known as Pixie Hollow?
• Disney Universe
• Disney Infinity
• Doug
• DuckTales (1987) and/or DuckTales (2017)
• The Emperor's New Groove
• Epic Mickey
• Finding Nemo
• Frozen
  • Confirmed! It's getting a world based on it.
• Fish Hooks
• Future-Worm!
• The Fox and the Hound
• Galavant
  • Seems unlikely for a number of reasons that make it more complicated than Pirates of the Caribbean, TRON, Marvel, Muppets, and Star Wars.
• Gargoyles
  • Gargoyles world is Jossed, though their characters could still show up.
  • If I had to guess, the appearance of Gargoyles depends on how popular it is in Japan (I mean, since they did consider giving it a world...) and if casual players today know what that is (I'm not sure if that's a Cult Classic these days) or Square-Enix wants to serve it towards the older players.
• George of the Jungle and/or the series
  • Jossed: George is owned by Universal's Dreamworks Animation.
• The Good Dinosaur
• Gravity Falls
  • Alex Hirsch has expressed disdain for the Kingdom Hearts franchise (though it seems to be more because he finds the concept narmy rather than genuinely despising it), which kind of decreases the chances of Gravity Falls showing up. However, Disney is allowing Square-Enix to draw from its entire library. Gravity Falls is popular in Japan and they usually have worlds in Kingdom Hearts based on what Japan wants.
    • Plus, while Alex Hirsch may not like the franchise himself, I doubt that he would refuse its inclusion based on his personal views on the series. Kingdom Hearts is clearly beloved by a lot of people and to deny them a world based on a cartoon that people adore because of his opinions seems out of character for him.
• Adventures of the Gummi Bears
  • May depend on how popular/well-known that is nowadays.
• The Incredibles and/or Incredibles 2.
  • The sequel is highly unlikely to make it in, seeing as how they've already decided on all the worlds. The original movie isn't likely to be in either, as Nomura is aiming to avoid multiple worlds with the same theme and there is already a superhero-themed world.
• Halloweentown
  • May depend on how well-known that is in Japan.
• Hocus Pocus
  • Doubt it, considering this film's a 90s comedy about a guy who's a virgin that shames him for being one.
    • If the world has an original plot, they could easily avoid mentioning that.
• Indiana Jones
• James and the Giant Peach
  • Seems unlikely for a number of reasons that make it more complicated than Pirates of the Caribbean, TRON, Marvel, Muppets, and Star Wars.
• Inspector Gadget
• Jimmy Two-Shoes
• John Carter
• The Jungle Book (1967) and/or TaleSpin
• Kick Buttowski
• Kid vs. Kat
• Kim Possible
• Labyrinth
• Lady and the Tramp
• The Legend of Lobo
• Lost
  • Seems unlikely for a number of reasons that make it more complicated than Pirates of the Caribbean, TRON, Marvel, Muppets, and Star Wars.
• The Lone Ranger
• The Love Bug
  • Given how not many people seem to know what it is nowadays and it doesn't even seem to be that well-known in Japan either, it's looking unlikely.
• Narnia
• Mars Needs Moms
• Mary Poppins
• Max Steel
• Meet the Robinsons
• Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
  • Alternatively, Mickey and the Roadster Racers?
• Miraculous Ladybug^note Hey, it airs on Disney Channel everywhere else in the world...
• My Hero Academia
  • Since Marvel and Shonen Jump teamed up to do a MHA/Avengers: Infinity War collab thingy, why not? We know we got Hiro and Baymax, but it would be great to have a Shonen Jump World in a Kingdom Hearts title.
• Moana
• Motorcity
• The Muppet Movie
• NieR: Automata
• Nightmare Ned
  • May depend on how popular/well-known that is nowadays.
• Once Upon a Time
  • May depend on how well-known that is in Japan.
• 101 Dalmatians
• Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures
• Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero
• Pepper Ann
• Persona 5
  • Not a Disney or Square Enix property, but the Phantom Thieves steal hearts, and the Shadows and the Heartless are already similar. Perhaps Sora and crew thinks of the thieves as villains before finding the truth.
• Phineas and Ferb and/or Milo Murphy's Law
  • Why not have one when we can combine both?
• Pickle and Peanut
• Pocahontas
• The Princess and the Frog
• The Proud Family
• Pucca
• Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja
• The Replacements
• Ratatouille
  • Confirmed! Rémy appears in the game.
• Recess
• Right Now Kapow
• Robin Hood (1973)
• Schoolhouse Rock!
• Sky High (2005)
  • May depend on how well-known that is in Japan.
• Slugterra
• Sofia the First and/or Elena of Avalor as a replacement for the 100 Acre Wood
  • Half-jossed: The 100 Acre Woods are returning.
• SonicTheHedgehog with elements of the Archie Comics version.
  • If not, Sonic and the Freedom Fighters could show up in the Hercules world. Rule of Cool for not only having Roger voicing Sonic with his Final Fantasy role, but with Tara Strong as Post-SGW Sally and Rikku.
  • Jossed: Sonic is a Sega property, not Square Enix.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil
• Star Wars
  • Broad Strokes of the films
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars
  • Star Wars Rebels
• Street Fighter, Rule of Cool for a fight between Ryu and Sora vs. M. Bison.
  • It's a tradition for Capcom to include Ryu and Chun-Li in their crossovers that they made and if Disney, Capcom and Square can't have good ideas for a world based on that, they could appear in Raidant Garden's Arena or Greece.
• Studio Ghibli movies
• Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!
• The Simpsons
  • Probably Jossed. The worlds were already decided before the Fox deal was made.
    • Alternatively, one of the villains of it will appear as a Secret boss.
• The Sword in the Stone
• Treasure Planet
• TRON: Uprising
• Two More Eggs
• Up
• WALL•E
• Wander over Yonder
• Where's My Water?
• W.I.T.C.H.
• Wreck-It Ralph
  • Confirmed! Ralph is a summon.
• Yin Yang Yo!
• Zootopia
• Disney's various sequels (precedented with Agrabah in II and The Grid in Dream Drop Distance):
  • Aladdin and the King of Thieves
    • A clause in Robin Williams' will preventing the use of his physical or vocal likeness makes it unlikely that Agrabah will be returning, or at least Genie won't be, unless they don't give him a voice.
  • The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea
    • It will probably be another musical world if it makes it, considering that Nomura has confirmed that party members are still separate from summons and Ariel would most certainly be a party member (she is already a summon in this game).
  • Cinderella III: A Twist in Time (Dreams Come True is more like a Compilation Movie)
    • Oh, that could possibly work really well, considering time travel is an established element of KH now, and that Sora is gonna be gathering the Princesses of Heart.
  • The Lion King II: Simba's Pride and/or The Lion King 1 ½ (and perhaps The Lion Guard)
    • 1 1/2 is unlikely given it takes place during the original movie, which is already over.
    • In the case of II, Nuka would be the first boss of the world, and he dies in a log slide just like in the game that is triggered by the fight. Zira is, naturally, the final boss.
    • Also in the case of II, Kiara could be a party member or summon, like her dad in the previous games; she did make a cameo at the end of Kingdom Hearts II, so it would make sense to see her grown up in this game.
    • Jossed. Nomura confirmed Pride Lands is not in the game, but Simba is a summon.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: both Dead Man's Chest and At World's End (Due to the Keyblade being a Story-Breaker Power with regards to the former).
    • Confirmed! Sora and co. will reunite with Jack during the events of At World's End.
  • The rest of Lilo & Stitch: to be precise, the portions in Hawaii, with elements from the original movie, its sequels (hey, Sparky was a mandatory boss battle in one game), and The Series (and maybe even a cameo or reference to Stitch! and Stitch & Ai, if they can/if fans would allow them).
    • Jossed; Stitch is only returning as a mere summon again.
  • Maleficent, could be an alternate world of Sleeping Beauty or they could mix the two different versions of the story together
  • Mulan II
    • All are jossed unless stated otherwise.

The game will feature the most worlds in the series

Because the fans have been waiting for a lengthy game

• Confirmed to have more worlds then KH2, which has the most in the series.
  • Jossed later on, it now has less Disney worlds than KH2, but they are longer.

Frozen will appear as a world.

Because Elsa spamming blizzagas.

• Perhaps Elsa's fear of herself and love for her family has made her heart equally light and dark and this causes Xehanort to target her as one of his many back up plans.
  • As Elsa nears her Despair Event Horizon, Xehanort takes the opportunity to manipulate the darkness in her heart, and the player is forced to fight either her or her own Vanitas (if only for the sake of an awesome boss fight).
  • If D-links from Birth by Sleep return, then Elsa will be one, granting all sorts of ice powers (Blizzaga, Blizzard Raid, Homing Blizzara, Glacier, Triple Blizzaga) with the final limit break being, what else? "Let it Go", which basically nukes everything on the screen - with ice.
  • And after that fight is over, Xehanort will have another of his Thirteen Darknesses... Hans!
  • After the adventure there is concluded, there will be a massive amount of Riku/Elsa Ship Tease, even more than Sora/Ariel in the first two games.
    • Think about it. Riku's behavior in the first game pretty much sunk any possible pairing with Kairi, but let's look at Elsa. She has this natural ability that makes herself a danger to everyone around her, and which nearly kills someone very dear to her, despite her best intentions. Hmm... where have we seen this before?
  • Or instead of Riku, Lea will be part of the group that goes to Arendelle and he'll spend the entire time flirting with Elsa.
• At this point, Frozen is pretty much a shoo-in, as stated on its own WMG page. There's two reasons why a Frozen world would be beneficial for both franchises:
  • Pandering to the Japanese fanbase. Frozen is enjoying Titanic-like success in Japan, which is also Kingdom Hearts' country of origin. This is pretty much why it's almost guaranteed to be in the game.
  • Helping to introduce more male fans to Frozen. Even if it's a Cast Full of Pretty Boys, an RPG video game has a much higher proportion of male fans than a Disney princess movie, so if Arendelle as a world is done awesomely then it'd succeed in winning them over.
• Confirmed as of E3 2018.

Tangled will also appear as a world

And if Rapunzel is a D-link (if that returns), then she grants restorative powers (Regen for example), stuns, and the final limit is simply her squashing enemies flat with a frying pan.

• Sora's Keyvhain from that world (a length of golden hair with a chameleon figurine on the end) will change the Keybalade into a giant frying pan. Riku will actually mock him for this.
• As of E3 2015, confirmed!

The Disney worlds are a mixture of new worlds and returning worlds — with the overarching goal between them being that they were all paths Xehanort might choose to take, so the protagonists are visiting all these worlds not to seal the keyholes from Heartless, but to seal the keyhole to close the door on Xehanort's plans. Sometime before Birth by Sleep (including timetravel), Xehanort had set up his plans in these worlds, and will return to check on them.

• Another WMG up there suggested that Xehanort's business in Frozen is because Elsa's heart had become equally light and dark, making her potentially able to summon the x-blade. His plans are quashed by the protagonists getting Elsa to accept her powers, thus closing her off.
• From Tangled, Xehanort had (in the past) seen the flower, and noticed that it could "heal" hearts. He thought Ven was worthless, which was why he didn't take Ven to the flower before. By the events of Kingdom Hearts 3, the flower had been picked and Gothel had kept Rapunzel in the tower, but Xehanort might return in hopes that he couple either convert Rapunzel or Gothel into a vessel, or use Rapunzel as one of his seven lights. (OR even have her "heal" a Nobody into a copy of Xehanort.) Flynn cuts her hair, and thus Rapunzel loses her power to "heal" hearts. (Subsequently this is what made Sora attractive to Xehanort in Dream Drop Distance.)
  • Another possibility for Tangled. Marluxia appears in from Sora, Donald, and Goofy while they visit Rapunzel's world. Kingdom Hearts χ reveals that his Somebody, Lauriam, was alive at the time of the Keyblade War. The healing Fountain of Youth abilities of Rapunzel's hair originated from a flower. Marluxia has Green Thumb powers. Given his involvement in the world and his apparent age, Marluxia may be even older than Gothel. In fact, it's possible that Lauriam was the one who taught Gothel everything she knew about the flower in the first place.
• In Brave, Xehanort seeks to exploit the witch - since her spell had turned Mor'du into a demonic bear, which is in fact a result of his heart being stained with pride and darkness. For some reason, Mor'du was imperfect and simply left as a rampaging heartless, but Elinor and/or Merida appear to be much more suitable subjects... alternatively, he was behind the Witch's disappearance.
• In Wreck-It-Ralph, he noticed King Can—I mean Turbo's heart becoming stained, and noticed that he was able to warp reality in a game. So Xehanort seeks to take Turbo as one of his "Darknesses", since he's artificial, and might potentially be able to "develop" a heart of Xehanort makes him into a Nobody.
• Princess and the Frog: Easy... Xehanort wanted to make Dr. Facilier and Mama Odie fight, creating the x-blade.
• Moana: Maui stealing Te Fiti's heart turned her into a Nobody and she is now being used by Xehanort as one of his "Darknesses".
• If Oz appears as a world, two possibilities:
  • Oz the Great and Powerful: Xehanort was either responsible for Evanora's Start of Darkness or he egged her on, making her into a potential vessel. Or, maybe he didn't think Evanora was strong enough, and thought maybe Theodora would be better. He eggs on Evanora since he could get another backup vessel with Theodora, except that the apple turns her into a heartless, creating a Nobody that could be bred into a vessel. When Evanora's necklace is removed, she herself becomes a heartless, also creating a nobody that can be made into a vessel. (Donald helps contribute to Oscar's trickery) The Wicked Witch of the West is fought twice - the second time as a Dual Boss with Evanora. Sadly, by destroying the two heartlesses, Sora gives Xehanort one or two more vessels.
  • Return to Oz: Xehanort had visited the Nome king in the past and noticed that the Nome King was essentially a nobody - so he tried to see if the Nome King had a heart or not. In the current timeline, Xehanort returns and finds that the Nome King is starting to turn more human (like he does in the movie) and ergo becoming part of him. Xehanort's influence has made the Nome King more evil, and Sora shuts off his plans by defeating the Nome King and denying him a vessel. Being Xehanort... there is another road he could take...
• If Star Wars appears as a world:
  • The Force Awakens: Because Starkiller Base canonically operates on dark matter (It actually does according to Word of God, it could be that Starkiller Base is literally powered by Heartless and now Xehanort wants to use it as a weapon of his own. However, after beating The Force Awakens world, he gets in trouble with the First Order and is forced to leave.
• Jossed.

There will be a world based on one of Disney's live action TV shows

Probably not a girly music show world, but maybe something with action in it like Wizards of Waverly Place, Descendants, Kickin' It, or Lab Rats.

• Wizards of Waverly Place - Sora and the gang get involved in one of the main Wizards arcs, perhaps the Gorog arc.
• Kickin' It - Sora and the gang help Jack and the Wasabi Warriors in their feud with the Black Dragons.
• Lab Rats - Sora and the gang fight Douglas Davenport an Marcus with help from Adam, Bree, and Chase.
• Pipe Dream: Power Rangers - Disney used to own the rights to the franchise; considering that Saban is okay with the idea of Lego Power Rangers, surely if Disney asked, Saban would let Disney include one of the Disney-era Power Rangers series (possibly Dino Thunder, if only to get fans of Tommy to play KHIII).
  • Jossed.

Olympus Coliseum will return

And this time the tournaments will be on Mount Olympus. You may also be able to meet Zack there again, too.

• Adding to this Zack will be on Olympus because he became a True Hero and thus became a god.
  • Well, Herc is aiming to regain his Godhood, not get it. Hero? Oh yeah, and he's totally going to ask Aqua to follow up on that date. God? Doubtful.
• Confirmed!

• Chances of it being the first world and where Sora will find the mean to become a master?
  • Confirmed to be the first world at the end of 0.2. It remains to be seen if it is where he will learn to become a master, however.
• It is not where he learns to become a Master, he only really seeks to ask Herc his advice on how to reobtain his lost power from Bag of Spilling.

Marvel is a compilation of the three properties.

Or rather, III will feature one big superhero world, "City of Heroes", that's a blend of Big Hero 6, the Incredibles, and Marvel. You get three optional party members some way or another - Hiro and Baymax, Mr. Incredible, and Captain America. Yokai, Syndrome, and Ultron are the villains in a Big Bad Triuumvirate.

• Jossed. There's a Big Hero 6 world that exclusively focuses on that property.

Disney Worlds and the events that occur

• San Fransokyo: When Hiro orders Baymax to kill Yokai, his heart will give into darkness and become a Heartless. Kairi's let will set him back to normal, but the group has to find his Nobody to complete him. After beating it, you get Baymax as a Summon.
  • The world is confirmed, but the story is actually a sequel to the movie.
• Andy's House/Sid's House: When Sora and the gang learn about a world where toys are alive, this makes Sora paranoid about his childhood. Riku will especially panic because he would seem like the kind of kid that would blow up his toys. Donald would use his magic to help Woody and Buzz defend themselves.
  • The world is confirmed.
• Arendelle: Sora and the gang come and are convinced by the town's folk that Elsa is a monster. When they see Elsa for who she really is, they end up conflicted who to help, since neither side is in the wrong.
• Olympus Coliseum: I had another theory concerning Emperor Meteus in the FF character theories, but here's an alternative one. Snow Villiers comes to Olympus to learn how to be a hero from Hercules. When Hades sees him with his fiancé, Serah, he kidnaps her and forces Snow to work for him in exchange for her safety.
• The Arcade: The arcade is part of Twilight Town, the story is a sequel to the movie, and Xehanort has resurrected Turbo as a member of the Organization.

If Treasure Planet were to grace the game...

The RLS Legacy from Treasure Planet will be a world similar to Monstro, where it simply... appears as you're going to another world and Sora, Donald, and Goofy find themselves stowed away on the Legacy. Which does not go over well when Mr Arrow finds them and shows them to the good captain Amelia, who is about to have them locked in the brig when Heartless appear and neat work is made of them. Amelia is mildly impressed and hires Sora and co. on to defend the ship from the Heartless, which have been plaguing the journey. Eventually they do arrive at Treasure Planet (to Sora's childlike glee) and everything proceeds roughly as it did in the movie, though they skip Amelia getting hurt from the bad landing and just have them kidnapped right from the off, and the alarm system triggers a huge boss fight rather than the planet exploding. It explodes as a result of the boss fight OR the world is destroyed because of Xehanort. This of course assuming the worlds dip back into the way they were done in the first and second games, where the Heartless were integrated into the general plot of the original film. The Legacy' would be a good world to have because the nature of the movie's universe would mean they, like Triton, know about other worlds out there. And so could bring news about other worlds falling out of existence. Also I just really, really, really want Jim Hawkins as a Guest-Star Party Member.

• Jossed. No Treasure Planet.

How Wreck-It Ralph may work as a world.

It wasn't until I was talking with someone about how Wreck-It Ralph couldn't work as a world, that I realised there was one way that it could that would safely omit what people say makes it impossible to include, and it wouldn't make it look like a cheap excuse. Remove the arcade element and render the three games as programmes on Ansem the Wise's computer, accessed via Space Paranoids (which is in turn having its own problems because of what's going on in the sub-world). Wreck-It Ralph still has its own world, known only as "Game Central" and so named after the surge protector strip that allows the game characters to switch games in the film. The story picks up following around the time Felix goes after Ralph (meaning you need to get info from the Nicelanders), and the root of the trouble is, naturally, the Cybugs have eaten the Heartless and merged with them. So in addition to a beacon, they're also susceptible to the Keyblade. You naturally have to face a giant Cybug-Heartless boss, and King Candy, who could be turning into a Heartless because of his greed and being an attention whore. Or the latter is also the former and you fight them twice, just like you did with Scar in the Pride Lands. You can also fight a 1000 Heartless Battle here as in KHII, because from how Cybugs multiply, this makes total sense. I believe the final stage of this world would actually be Hero's Duty, when King Candy appears to have died when you fight him initially, but has actually fled to Hero's Duty to plan a revenge scheme. This would work because Turbo as King Candy actually still has data in the game at the time of his demise, and could regenerate on that coding and because he was so consumed by his own darkness. He renders Hero's Duty inaccessible until you do something in the other two worlds (fight a mini-boss?). In theory, you play through the first half of the world and do the plot of the movie, and the second half is original plot, taking place mostly in Hero's Duty.

Alternatively to Ansem's computer, the Arcade could be part of Twilight Town.

• Jossed. Wreck-It Ralph isn't a world in this game.

How to work in Phantom Manor/Haunted Mansion

Haunted Mansion is one of Disney's most iconic rides, but it has a small problem in KH3. Their mode of transport - the Doombuggies- is remarkable incapable of offensive abilities. So, make it a world. And use Euro Disney's Phantom Manor as a base.

Phantom Manor is tied into the other nearby attraction, Big Thunder Mountain. They were apart of the same town, until the mining in the mountain angered it's protective spirit and it set a massive earthquake upon the town. Melanie's father died, as did many other people. Melanie Ravenswood later decided to marry, but a ghost -Le Fantom- murdered her fiancee. This then leads the two spirits in an eternal fight. Melanie wanting to protect the guests even beyond her death. And Le Fantom tormenting her spirit and wanting to add souls to his haunted version of the town above. Here is a ridethrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXU9ecfMm_o (Normally a Phantom laughs with a shovel outside the bourdoir. He appears to have been down for a refurb)

Sora can arrive in Thunder Mesa, and hears about the mansion. When he gets there, Le Fantom decides to add Sora to his collection. Melanie is just as determined to NOT let that happen. Constance Hatchaway and the Hatbox Ghost are Le Fantom's underlings. (though Constance is trying to get the power Le Fantom has. And she wants to use Sora to do it. She's a conwoman, after all) Sora eventually finds out about the souls trapped in the town, and decides to free them.

At the end, the only soul not freed is Madame Leota. She knows what Xehanort is up to. And considering how far behind Sora and Co. are, they NEED a seer to help them.

• Jossed. Not a world.

There will be a Muppet world

It will replace KH2's Atlantica as a musical mini-game world. As for the framing story behind the songs, one of the following could happen (feel free to add your own suggestions):

• It could adapt 1979's The Muppet Movie, with Sora, Donald, and Goofy joining Kermit's road trip to Los Angeles from his Florida swamp (with songs from the film, starting with "Rainbow Connection" and ending with "The Magic Shop/Rainbow Connection Reprise").
• It could adapt 2011's The Muppets, with Sora, Donald, and Goofy joining Walter and Gary in their quest to reunite the Muppets and save the Muppet Theater (with songs from the movie).
• It could be an original plot akin to an episode of The Muppet Show, with Sora, Donald, and Goofy invited as guest stars and performing alongside the Muppets (beginning with the Theme Tune; using songs from throughout the show's run, such as "Mahna Mahna" and "Turn the World Around"; and ending with "Rainbow Connection"). This option could also place the Muppet Theater in an existing world (such as Twilight Town or the Radiant Garden), rather than give the Muppets their own, separate world.
• It could be something like 100 Acre Woods where instead of traveling through a book, you travel into a poster where it'll take you to a theater stage. Once there you can help Kermit start the show but first, you have to help out the other muppets with their personal problems by doing simple tasks in the style of mini-games.
• Jossed.

There will be a world based on The Emperor's New Groove

The world will be named Kingdom of the Sun as a reference to the film's original title.

• Jossed.

For the worlds that did not make the cut, but existed before in the previous titles, they will have a cameo or callback.

As an alternative to the above guess regarding this world, Wreck-it Ralph will have an optional section based on one real licensed arcade game. However...

...the section will be different on each HD system. PS4 gets Q-bert, while Xbox One gets Jetpac. In the event the optional section needed to be addressed in a sequel, it would be described in broad terms.

• Jossed.

Phineas and Ferb will either get a world or a summon

Danville could appear as a world where either Dr. Doofenshmirtz accidentally unleashes Heartless into the city, or could be directly based off Across the Second Dimension with both versions of Danville being their own separate worlds (but counting as one in-game), the Second Dimension Danville being ruled by an alternate, Heartless possessed Doofenshmirtz.Or alternatively, mix it up with Milo and Company.

Or, alternatively, the series will just get a summon. Either Agent P to go kung fu on enemies or the two titular characters to build a contraption to help Sora.

• Jossed.

Steven Universe will be the first Kingdom Hearts world based on a Cartoon Network property

Well, since Cartoon Network did aired shows from Disney's properties like Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the Super Hero Squad Show? Why not? Imagine Stronger than You as the boss theme.

• Jossed.

There will be a Gigantic world

With Rock Titan and Tornado Titan already confirmed, the Storm Giants would fit right in as enemies.

• Gigantic would've been released in 2020 while Kingdom Hearts III is slated to be released in 2018, so Jossed. Also, Gigantic has been cancelled, eliminating any lingering possibility that it could somehow be in the game.

Groot will be a summon

Summoning Groot triggers a cutscene where Sora throws the plant pot and Groot bursts out.

• Jossed.

How Inside Out could work as a world

(this probably won't happen due to time constrains, but there's a reason this is Wild-Mass Guessing)Xehanort is attempting a new possession method by filling the mind with darkness first (goals may be: to keep full control of the entity, to weaken the heart's defenses or to create a loyal Nobody along with a Heartless), and has abducted Riley as a test subject. The heroes rescue her, but she's in a coma still under the effects of the experiment, so Yen Sid uses a spell to send them to Riley's Mind to cleanse it. There they meet and fight alongside the emotions (with the Running Gag of Sora confused about the "little people in his head" concept, wondering if he or the emotions have them too, only for everyone else to tell him to focus on the main war). Eventually they succeed, but Riley stays in the Hub World for recovery (allowing the world to be replayed) and is only sent to her home world at the end of the game.

Oh, and some of the emotions become summons (the ones that didn't join the party in their world/level).

• Jossed. No world.

Zootopia will be a world

Soon after they arrive Donald will be arrested, or at least given a warning, for going out in public without pants.

• Either that or Judy will be a summon.
  • If Judy is a summon, her Summon Charm would be obtained from Snow White to serve as an Actor Allusion to her voice actor's role in Once Upon a Time.
• It would work, based on the fact that it has an interesting world that could make a fun experience to travel in, and the themes of friendship and prejudice could tie well with most of the themes from Kingdom Hearts.
• The movie's had a couple of events already in X, too.
• The Night Howler plague would instead be Heartless possessing various people in that world.
• Jossed.

If Inside Out could be adapted into future Kingdom Hearts games, it will be a completely different world

Think about this: The game won't directly adapt the movie and you won't control Sora or any other "normal" keyblade-wielding protagonists. No, you will actually play as Joy—specifically Sora's Joy! And the "world" is literally Sora's mind, just like the movie set in Riley's mind. Seriously, how cool is that?! I can really imagine this happening.

Star Wars Rebels could be the representative of Star Wars in KH 3.

The problems posed by the Star Wars franchise in relation to Kingdom Hearts, namely multiple worlds and the art style, wouldn't be a problem with Rebels, given that the art style is already cartoony, and the action is pretty much already limited to Lothal.

• The representation of Rebels could be a Broad Strokes to implement Season 2 things, like Sabine's appearance, Ahsoka Tano, etc.
• The keyblade will be similar to Ezra's gunsaber.
• The villains would obviously be the Imperials, but mainly the Inquisitors (and maybe somehow getting the Grand Inquisitor to show up), and maybe Kallus.
• Maybe because of the Empire's recent actions (maybe something about the Force or wanting to use Heartless as an energy source for the Death Star?), some Heartless are starting to leak into the GFFA, so the Ghost crew returns back to Lothal (the center of the leaking) to remedy to problem before it gets worse.
• Ezra, Sabine, or Ahsoka will be summons.
• This will be an optional world.
• Not being able to leave Lothal will be excused as fear that as you are from the K Hverse, the more you travel, the more you spread out the spawn area for the Heartless.
• Jossed. No world.

Callaghan

will go through a Redemption Arc in San FransokyoSince it is confirmed that San Fransokyo will be telling the events after Big Hero 6, the titular team will think he had something to do with the world's conflict, leading to a Not Me This Time scenario. After finding out that Abigail was alive, he'll realize how much of a bastard he was and try to redeem himself, only to get rejected at first. Much like Iago, he'd be the driving force that helps Sora and the BH 6 defeat Dark Baymax.

• Jossed. He's not in this at all.

The Jungle Book world will finally appear in this world based on recent events

They're all hints for the film finally having a world in this game.

• 1) The new remake of the film that's coming out in a few months.
• 2) The abandoned world in Birth by Sleep, i'm thinking they're reserving that world for a PS game than to randomly insert it in a DS game (maybe for a better worldview and graphics?).
• 3) The recent leaked script of the abandoned Kingdom Hearts animated series, which told of a Jungle Book world that would appear in the show (and this was in the early days of the games, so I'm thinking Nomura always wanted to include Jungle Book in the series).
• 4) Nomura's comment that this game would have the most worlds out of them all, and that we'll be seeing new worlds more than anything. It makes it possible for this world to appear for the first time alongside other candidates like Tangled or Big Hero 6.
• 5) Kingdom Hearts χ has had an event featuring medals of Mowgli, Baloo, and Louie.
• Jossed.

If Star Wars and Marvel Comics are in this game, then they will be optional and limited worlds

The excuse could be something like 'This world is already an adversary against another darkness of their own. Perhaps it is best to not get too involved for the sakes of both of our worlds.'

• Jossed.

In the case of a Star Wars world, there will be time travel involved.

We will have a Clone Wars stage, a Rebels stage, and a The Force Awakens stage.

• Jossed.

If there is a Jungle Book world, it will be based on the 2016 film instead of the animated one

Because it's more recent and it seems it'll be Truer to the Text (also marketing).

• Jossed.

A LucasArts property will have a world, or at least get some inclusion

It was said that they were looking into using a LucasArts property to put into the game (I forgot the article). Hopefully I'm not the only one seeing Sora fight off Heartless based off of the monsters from Zombies Ate My neighbors or fighting alongside Guybrush from the Monkey Island games.

• Jossed.

Moana and Maui become Guest Star Party Members

Te Ka basically is a heartless because Maui stole her heart, and of course, Sora&co (or whoever is playable there) have to help Moana and Maui restore the heart of Te Fiti. And Te Fiti becomes an optional boss -

• Cue the player characters reminiscing/having a nostalgia moment with regards to the resemblance of the world with Destiny Islands.
• That or the Moana aspect of the game will be set in some other part of Destiny Islands in the first place.
• Jossed. Big Hero 6 was the latest Disney property they could add to the game.

The last world will be Kingdom Hearts itself

The climax of the game will involve Xehanort succeeding in summoning it. There'll be some interdimensional shit requiring Xehanort (and any remaining henchman of his) to enter Kingdom Hearts for his plan to succeed. Sora and company will pursue Xehanort so they can stop him before he gains all its power.

• Jossed.

The Hercules world's plot in this game will be an adaptation of the film

Although there've been hints toward the movie's plot in previous games, such as how Hades's defeat in KHII matches his film incarnation's, the Hercules worlds in previous games have centered primarily around Hades trying to kill Hercules. Neither Hades's plan to take over Mt. Olympus nor his relationship with Zeus have been mentioned. Now, however, we've seen Mt. Olympus will play a major role in the Hercules world this time around, which will include visiting its peak where the gods live. Backing this WMG up is the return of the Rock Titan in a dark mountain arena very similar to Olympus's look in the film when Hades takes over. Could the other Titans, and maybe even the Cyclops, be far behind? It would even reflect a Villainous Breakdown for Hades. After so many defeats, he's finally going for broke.

For the last game in the Xehanort Saga, this would have the potential to give us a fantastic grand finale to the Olympus Coliseum plotline that's existed throughout the entire series. It would give us a ton of neat boss battles with the Titans while also maybe finishing off Hades for good after he's survived all his previous defeats.

After years of being shafted and ignored, Atlantis will finally, finally appear.

The Heart of the World will be the Heart of Atlantis. However, due to the unique circumstances of the world, the Heart has become fully self-aware and has a consciousness. It is resistant to Sora and co. locking it, because it does not trust Keybearers after the last ones came. (The last Keybearers to visit ended up being responsible for the War that sank Atlantis.)

• Jossed.

There won't be a Star Wars world.

• The Star Wars fanbase is infamous for complaining about a lot of things despite there being obvious explanations, and they might also see the inclusion of Star Wars in the friendship/anime/Disney-oriented world as cringy and something they'll never let it live down, so Lucasfilm and SE will choose to not put in Star Wars.
• Lucasfilm is currently trying to keep any work that takes up a lot of resources as canon, which obviously cannot work with Kingdom Hearts.
• Something about lightsabers and blasters vs. keyblades might be weird. Plus, because Star Wars mythos is pretty detailed, so it might be harder to put it together with the Kingdom Hearts mythos.
  • Maybe perhaps Disney will include an Indiana Jones world instead to test the feasability of including Lucasfilms works — they own the intellectual rights, not to mention that it would fit right in with a Pirates of the Caribbean world. Although it's worth noting that with Carrie Fisher having passed away, if they were to include a Star Wars world, they would have to use someone else to play Leia.
  • There have already been attacks resembling lightsabers and blasters in Kingdom Hearts.
• Confirmed. One reason is that it would be hard to coordinate with the Star Wars writers.

If Wreck-It Ralph makes it in, Geno will be in.

Mario will not be in the game for obvious reasons (unless a Nintendo Switch port is made so that Mario could be exclusive to that port), so the next best thing would be to include a Mario character that Square-Enix owns the rights to.

• Jossed.

The characterizations of the Ducks will be transitioned to blend with DuckTales (2017) via Broad Strokes and Composite Character.

The triplets hit puberty and are undergoing Divergent Character Evolution, Scrooge having been an adventurer with Donald and Della will be brought up, and Della (and maybe even her husband) will be introduced. In addition, Donald has already forgiven Scrooge for Della's disappearance, but it will be revealed that Della is trapped in the Realm of Darkness rather than on the moon, prompting Donald to try to rescue her. Bonus points if this is paired up with a side plot about Goofy and Max's relationship if Max appears. Webby, Mrs. Beakley, Glomgold, and etc. will also appear.

• Jossed. Big Hero 6 was the latest Disney property they could add in the game.

There will be a total of 13 worlds: 9 Disney/Square-Enix, 4 original.

It can be conveyed from the trailers that you will encounter a different Organization XIII in each world. 13 organization members = 13 worlds. This fits in with the statement that there are roughly three worlds per section of the game but not necessarily nine in total. It is also in line with the claim that the game will take 40-50 hours to finish if you follow just the main story. Assuming that the claim of 0.2 being the length of a single KH3 world is still true, that would make the main campaigns of all 13 worlds around three hours long each.

Real Organization members and their worlds

Aside from their motivations for being there, the themes of some of the confirmed members seem to match the theme of the world. This does NOT mean that a world will be jossed just because it has nothing in common with any Organization members. For cases like Twilight Town where more than one member appears, the world will be assigned to the one who had the main influence on gameplay (enemies, boss fights, etc.) there.

Bold confirmed.

• Young Xehanort:
  • Toy Story: It's Xehanort in his youth, and the world revolves heavily on children.
• Vanitas:
  • Monsters, Inc.: The Unversed are spawned from emotions and the world runs on emotions.
• Marluxia:
  • Tangled: Flower-themed member, flower-themed world.
• Xigbar:
  • Hercules
  • Brave: He and Merida are both sharpshooters.
  • Wreck-It Ralph: He and Vanellope both have power over space.
  • Frozen: Like Hans, Xigbar deceived royalty and pretended to be a good guy.
• Xehanort:
  • Kingdom Hearts
  • Keyblade Graveyard
  • Destiny Islands
  • Big Hero 6
• Xemnas:
  • Star Wars: Has attacks resembling lightsabers and blasters.
  • The World That Never Was
  • Twilight Town: He appears here with Ansem.
    • Both of them could share the world because as an In-Between world, it doesn't pertain to either light or darkness. Xemnas and Ansem don't pertain to either Terra or Xehanort.
• Ansem:
  • Destiny Islands
  • World of Darkness
  • Twilight Town: He appears here with Xemnas.
    • Both of them could share the world because as an In-Between world, it doesn't pertain to either light or darkness. Xemnas and Ansem don't pertain to either Terra or Xehanort.
• Saix:
  • Big Hero 6
  • Frozen
  • Atlantis: The Lost Empire
• Larxene:
  • Frozen: Larxene and Elsa are both viewed as horrible people.
• Luxord:
  • Pirates of the Caribbean
  • Wreck-It Ralph: Game-themed member, game-themed world.
  • Treasure Planet: He has been associated with pirates before in Kingdom Hearts II.
• Terra-Xehanort:
  • Castle Oblivion/Land of Departure
• Aqua:
  • World of Darkness
• Demyx:
  • Wreck-It Ralph
  • The Princess and the Frog: Demyx and Naveen are both lazy and would rather have fun.
• Dark Riku
• Vexen:
  • The Princess and the Frog
  • Meet the Robinsons: Something about science.

The Monsters, Inc. world takes place during the movie.

It's impossible for it to be post-movie because in the movie, it took them a while to reassemble Boo's door, and the factory had already fully transitioned to harvesting laughter by then. In the game, they still scare kids. The part in the trailer with a bar representing Boo's laughter isn't the "Laughing Floor", it's simply the same sequence in the movie where they figured out that her laughter could power the doors.

• Jossed. You can see balloons and banners saying "Think Funny" in the "Scaring/Laughing Floor," meaning they've transitioned to laugh power and the world's story has to take place after the movie. This would be in-line with the other Disney worlds included so far having original stories.
• Unless it follows the same style of world stories as Kingdom Hearts 2, where a return visit later in the game opens up an additional story taking place sometime after the first one.
  • They've already said that they won't be doing that.

How NPCs could populate a Wreck-It Ralph world

• Generic original NPCs
• Third-party characters (maybe they could even join a major fight; imagine fighting alongside Sonic and Ryu)
• Characters exclusive to the console you're playing on
• Other Square-Enix characters
• Mostly empty, as the Organization's meddling has forced the arcade owner to unplug the other cabinets
  • Jossed. Not a world.

The Tangled world is set during Tangled: The Series.

Rapunzel does have her long locks back, from what has been seen so far as has happened in the TV show, possibly setting the world during it. Perhaps the mysterious rocks could play a part in the world's plot and Varian could be a boss fight.

• As much fun as that would be, them showing the scene from the movie where Rapunzel gets her hair braided and then sees the picture of the lost princess in the marketplace implys that it takes place during the original movie. Maybe in a future game.
• Jossed. It's set during the movie and Big Hero 6 was the latest Disney property they could put in.

Atlantica will return, but not in the way most people would expect.

Instead the focus of this story would be on characters from Finding Nemo, revealing that they share a world in the kingdom Hearts universe.

• Jossed.

Shibuya will be a world or a district of San Fransokyo.

Nomura seems to be trying to bring back everyone for the grand finale of the Xehanort saga, so the easiest way to include the TWEWY characters is to include their world. Also, Sora promised to visit the place.

• Jossed. However it looks like Shibuya will be making an appearance in the next KH installment, whenever that may be.

If the game goes multiplatform, each version could have a unique world/summon, either relating to Disney or a well known game series related to the platform.

PS4:

• A world based either on the Crash Bandicoot or Spyro the Dragon series, with the other acting as a unique summon.
  • But since they're now owned by Activision, why not use Gravity Rush?
• A world based on the original Jak and Daxter.

Nintendo Switch:

• Mushroom Kingdom or Hyrule
• A world based on fire Emblem, either focused on the latest title or a combination of them.
• A world based on Xenoblade Chronicles.
• A Kirby summon.

Xbox One:

• Spiral Mountain/Gruntilda's Lair. Putting those Rare properties to good use!

PC/Steam:

• Apeture Labs: A world based on the Portal series with Glados experimenting on heartless and incorporating them into test chambers.
  • I don't see platform exclusive worlds happening, it would be unfair to those without the console, money, or both to just get that one world you can't elsewhere.

If Agrabah returns, Maleficent will plan to resurrect Jafar there.

Besides Jafar being one of Maleficent's most trusted and powerful allies, it would provide an excuse to fight his cobra form in one final, epic showdown.

• Jossed.

Riku Replica is the "Missing Darkness" Young Xehanort is referring to in the Toy Story trailer.

We now know for sure that Riku Replica will be in this game. My theory is that, while he will not be a Seeker of Darkness, he either originally was one and went rogue, or the Xehanorts intended to make him one. In one of the Toy Story trailers, Young Xehanort mentions to Sora that there is a Darkness that they are looking to reclaim, and that the Toy Story world may help them out in their search. My guess is that he is referring to Riku Replica. Think about it! Like Andy's toys, he originally started out as an empty vessel, but eventually developed his own heart through his interactions with others. He is even referred to as "a toy" by Larxene in Chain of Memories. Other than Xion, though it's debatable whether or not Xehanort even knows about her, Riku Replica is the most likely person to be the "Missing Darkness". Having experienced the cruelty of the original Organization XIII firsthand, he'll likely want nothing to do with the new one. Plus, he never seemed to be 'evil', just bitter and angry at the fact that he was just a copy of Riku, and that all his 'memories' were nothing but lies. I'll bet he'll realize that, even though he is a replica of Riku, he is still his own unique person, with his own heart, and that he'll help the heroes fight against the True Organization.

Kingdom Hearts itself will be The Very Definitely Final Dungeon

A set of Climax Bosses will take place in the Keyblade Graveyard with Xehanort's incarnations, as a part of the fated "light vs darkness" battle. But afterwards, Master Xehanort successfully opens up Kingdom Hearts and goes inside it to obtain its power. The heroes then follow in after him, resulting in a climactic final level that mixes previous worlds together (like the End of the World), has a light vs darkness motif (like The World That Never Was), and contains generally surreal set pieces that benefits a place where all hearts are created.

• Jossed.

Final Mix

The Final Mix will either be a standalone disc or DLC expansion

• Making it the first Final Mix to get a proper release in the West without it being part of a collection released a decade later.
  • Seems to be confirmed; a single set of DLC focusing on clearing up plotholes and adding superbosses, much like Final Mixes in the past, is in development.

It will include a Critical Mode

• Especially since the biggest gripe people have from a gameplay standpoint is how easy it is.
  • Jossed; it was part of a free update a few months after the main game's launch.

Radiant Garden will be a world

Luxu

will be an Optional Boss

• Because most of the games would have an Optional Boss that would preview what's to come.
  • The Optional Boss battles are against souped-up versions of the XIII Seekers of Darkness, of course of which Xigbar is one of them, but he still just fights as Xigbar/Braig, similar to his battle style in II and Birth By Sleep. So kinda both Jossed and Confirmed at the same time, in a way.

There will be Absent Silhouette and Data Battles against the versions of Xehanort

• Similar to the one against Organization XIII in Kindgom Hearts II: Final Mix.
  • One part of the DLC package has the tentative name of Limit Cut, which was a Japanese term used to refer to the original Data Organization when II FMwas first released, which lends credence to this theory.
  • Confirmed. The optional boss fights are against incredibly powerful versions of the XIII Seekers of Darkness.

An official soundtrack will be announced around the time that ReMIND comes out.

• As of September 2019, it is known that the ReMIND DLC, seemingly the equivalent of Final Mix from previous games, will be released at some point in winter 2019/2020. My guess is that it will contain brand new music, and all of the music from both the original KHIII, ReMIND, 0.2, χ, Back Cover, and Unchained χ will be released at once on a single album.
  • Jossed. ReMIND was released in January 2020, but the official soundtrack compilation for the above games wasn't formally announced until summer 2020, with the release date being mid-November 2020, alongside Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory.

The Final Fantasy stuff will return in the ReMIND expansion.

Since the Cloud VS Sephiroth feud was not concluded in previous titles, this would be a good place to conclude it. Also the inclusion of Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XV's worlds and characters can finally happen, with an option to bring Lightning and/or Noctis in the Disney Worlds as part of your party.

• Confirmed. The final trailer for ReMIND shows that the Radiant Garden gang will return. No sign of anyone else though.
  • Cid, Aerith, Yuffie and Leon do return in Limit Cut in extremely minor roles.

Post-Release WM Gs

Avalon and The Hundred-Acre Woods are the same place.

A world that Merlin keeps on hand where time has no meaning. Only a short distance away from the Hundred-Acre Woods is a far, far grander forest. Deep in that forest is a grave where The Man once known as Wart is sleeping.

Kairi will be the main protagonist of the next KH game (which will not be IV.)

Considering how she was ultimately reduced to a Damsel in Distress once more in this game, something many fans weren't happy about, and how she is the reason Sora vanished in the end, it is possible that Nomura will have the next game follow her going off on a journey to find Sora and finally taking a level in badass as a way to apologize to her fans.

• While I would love for Kairi to finally be a playable character, the secret ending implies that the next game will once again primarily focus on Sora and Riku.
• Confirmed with Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory

The second voiced star in the Final World is Strelitzia.

The fact that the scene is voiced means it has to be an important character and/or someone we already know. The second star mentions that she was killed by a "somebody" and that "they took away [her] name - everything about [her]", which can reference how Strelitzia was killed and someone usurped her position in the Dandelions.

• The star also mentions that someone close to her has had "his heart replaced with another's"; if this is Strelitzia, then that someone can be interpreted as Lauriam, who is now one of Xehanort's vessels as Marluxia.
• The conversation ends with the star telling Sora the name of the person she is waiting for (though keeping the players in the quiet) and says "Our secret." Larxene also says something similar in her final moments, as when Sora asks her about who she was going along with, she replies with "My secret." Larxene's Somebody was Elrena, who was stated to be friends with Strelitzia.
• Jossed by the trailer for Kingdom Hearts IV. Stelitzia is in Quadratum.

The "Nameless Star" and Yozora/"Verum Rex" are connected.

The Nameless Star's original identity could in fact be the Stella Expy seen in the Verum Rex commercial, as she and Yozora seem to have a close bond (or, at least, close enough that Yozora would be shown going to great lengths to save her). She is even shown wearing a star-shaped necklace, which could be a subtle hint to her fate in becoming the Nameless Star. If so, it could be possible that Yozora's heart may have been "replaced with another's" and would be "distressed by [her] absence" "were he to regain his old self"... but that can be saved for another WMG entry for now.

• That being said, while I don't mean to say that the "Nameless Star = Strelitzia" WMG is jossed (at least not yet), it would seem odd for Sora to have the reaction to the name of the Nameless Star's friend if NS was really Strelitzia; Sora reacted as if he not only recognized the name, but was shocked and confused to hear it (as he would be if the name were "Yozora", as previously discussed). If so, then NS couldn't be Strelitzia since A) She wouldn't know that Lauriam is now Marluxia and B) Sora wouldn't know of Marluxia's original name.
• Pretty much Confirmed in Re Mind's Secret Episode. When Sora meets Yozora face to face, he mentions that "that girl" told him about Yozora, making him wonder if he is in the real world or not.

Uncle Scrooge has always been aware of the other worlds; he owns the prototype Gummiship and is a primary backer for Chip and Dale.

He mostly uses it for mining asteroids in a nod to his original claim to riches.

Sometimes after the ending of KH3D, Saix regained his own consciousness, had a Villainous Breakdown, and spent most of his time in KH3 trying to get himself destroyed.

When he faced off against Lea in 3D, Saix didn’t say a word nor changed his expressions. This, coupled by Master Xehanort’s seemingly signaling him to take the actions, indicate that he was completely controlled during that scene.

However, since all of the other True Organization XIII members remain true to their character, the same also applies to Saix. And after the Organization moved their base to Keyblade Graveyard, Master Xehanort removed the control he had on Saix. Cue Villainous Breakdown as Saix remembered everything he had done and how it was All for Nothing.

Then, as he found out that the members who time-traveled to the present time use Replicas to contain their Heart, Saix thought that he could atone himself by bringing back Lea’s new friends with the same method. Thus, he went to Radiant Garden, recruited Even, turned him back to Vexen, and asked him to continue perfecting the Replicas.

But it wasn’t enough. He needed Lea to be motivated enough to fight him. Hence him visiting Lea at Twilight Town and trying to get him as irritated as possible by suddenly mentioning Subject X, comparing her fate to Roxas’, and snatching one of the sea-salt ice creams that Lea was holding.

Finally, he partnered with the newly-recreated Xion so that he could “help” her regaining her Heart and reuniting with Roxas and Lea. He just needed to be in a permanent state of Berserk so that Lea wouldn’t hesitate to fight him. And to stall the fight long enough for Roxas to arrive at Keyblade Graveyard.

In the end, Saix fulfilled his own statement from KH2:“Do you know what happens to those who lose their true purpose? Inevitably, they destroy themselves.”

Subject X is...

• Data-Strelitzia.
  • In the Union χ scene "Aftermath" Lauriam had a vision of Strelitzia after his battle with Maleficent, which soon saw her replaced by a feminine blonde in a white hood, speaking his name before vanishing. Later, in "Luxu and Darkness" Luxu is seen placing someone he calls "the true Dandelion" in one of the lifeboats, wrapped in white — not unlike Ventus after Master Xehanort created Vanitas. Later still, in "You Saw Her?!?" Elrena's Chirithy mentions seeing a hooded girl in white who looked "an awful lot like" Strelitzia, following a man in a black coat, and Brain later theorizes that, in addition to Daybreak Town being backed up as data, so too would the data on the Keyblade wielders that lived there. Furthermore, in the journal we know to belong to Subject X, it wasn't Ansem The Wise that removed her from where she was kept, but a man with an eyepatch. Who fits that description again? And what was revealed about that person in KH3's ending?
    • Addendum: This WMG has not been Jossed by the KH4 Reveal Trailer. I propose that the Strelitzia Sora meets in Quadratum is the original/real Strelitzia, who wound up there after Darkness killed her.

• Skuld
  • The four friends are Ephemer, Elrena, Lauriam, and Ventus, and given that she is the only character who we don’t see emerging from their life raft, and that she doesn’t seem to remember her past, it can be reasonably assumed that something went wrong in transit (likely the same problem that caused Ventus to remain unconscious when he landed in the Keyblade Graveyard), causing her to lose her memories.
• Ava
  • Jossed.
    • Not actually Jossed; apparently the Ultimania translator got a little over excited about something and said this in error. The tweet above has been retracted.
• Skuld after getting Ava’s Heart inside her
  • It happened to Terra-Xehanort before, and he noted in his Secret Reports that Subject X was in similar situations as him.
    • Was referring to both having Laser-Guided Amnesia
• Someone completely new, but had connections to one of Union Leaders.
  • Elrena and Strelitzia’s teammate
  • A friend of either Demyx’s or Luxord’s Other.
• Kairi. Think about it: Kairi was noted to have been at Radiant Garden before it was Hollow Bastion, and in a Nomura interview, it was said by him that Ansem himself had send Kairi out of Radiant Garden. She would be the perfect candidate that fulfills the requirements of Subject X (some girl Lea and Isa know of that Ansem had been testing on, then he stopped doing that and somehow got rid of her). It would also deepen the connection between Kairi and Lea.
  • I had similar thoughts while playing the game, but it's not her. The Secret Reports confirm that Subject X was fifteen years old when the experiments happen, and we already know that Kairi was four years old before Terra-Xehanort arrival in Ansem's household. The only way it could be Kairi is if Time Travel was involved. Given the Foretellers being summoned to the present in the epilogue, it's more likely for Subject X to be someone from the pre-war era rather than an older version of a present-day character.
• Shiki from TWEWY. Her four friends could be Neku, Beat, Rhyme, and Eri. The fact that it is Shiki in Eri's body is analogous to Xehanort's on body swapping. Not sure where the 'key' fits in...

Isa and/or Namine will get their own Keyblade.

Donald Duck is the Dark Magician.

That battle was a retelling of Yugi’s duel against Kaiba, with the latter being Terra-Xehanort. Donald even reenacts Dark Magician’s card when preparing Zettaf—I mean, Dark Magic Attack.

The Big Hero 6 plot was originally going to be Tron.

With the Tron copy in the Door to Darkness computer being the second Baymax; and Rinnzler being the original Baymax. Additionally the Darkubes are a recolored version of the Bug Blox from Coded; which would make more sense in a Datascape.

• Finally, the Summon learned there is Stitch; who was hanging around Tron's computer in Kingdom Hearts 2.

If Disney is very ready enough to make their own Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that's the sequel to Kingdom Hearts III, then it would be the Weirdmageddon Trilogy, except cranked up

Also, the fans wishes to have Marvel and Star Wars in a Kingdom Hearts game would not only be granted, it would be a Massive Multiplayer Crossover Dream Match Game featuring both Disney properties in addition to properties owned by Guest Fighter companies (such as Warner Bros., Viacom CBS, Universal, Bandai-Namco, SEGA, Arc System Works, Ubisoft, Shuiesha, Kodansha, Capcom and more).

The next game is The World Ends With You 2

Dark Inferno is Heartless of a Keyblade wielder

It dual-wields swords that look vaguely like keyblade on the blade, albeit not on the hilt. Its movements also uncannily resemble Roxas and Data-Roxas in II and coded, respectively.

• Some Tumblr users have pointed out that it also resembles the goat motif of the No Name Keyblade, raising the possibility that it could be Luxu/Xigbar's Heartless.
• Personally, I thought it was Ephemer's Heartless. Notice its scarf?

Casting Zettaflare killed Donald

Just like Tellah. Yes, he was breathing when he collapsed, but he would have died shortly. Sora timetravelling back using the Nort method and Namine activating Lingering Will changed the timeline so Donald never cast it.

Birds are, by technicality, dragons

Birds are directly descended from dinosaurs, and the Japanese word for dinosaur literally means "frightful dragon". Therefore, birds - including ducks - are dragons.

And that's the story of how Donald can cast Zettaflare. Presumably, all birds could learn to cast at least Megaflare if they put in the effort, but Donald is the the only one who's gone through the trouble of powering up to Zetta.

• Better yet, in Dream Drop Distance, there's a Dream Eater species named Drak Quack that looks like a Mix-and-Match Critter between dragon and duck; and yes, they use fire (besides water and light)-based attacks.
• There's also a word "drake" that can either mean dragon or male duck. Donald is a male duck, so he's a drake.

Kingdom Hearts 4 will introduce new Nobodies.

It will introduce the Nobodies controlled by Vexen, Lexaeus, and Zexion.

• Given how keen Even and Ienzo were on redeeming themselves, it seems unlikely.

The next group of Princesses of Heart...

We already know Rapunzel, Elsa and Anna. Other possibilities:

• Pocahontas (being one of the official Disney Princesses)
• Kida of Atlantis: The Lost Empire
• Tiana of The Princess and the Frog (being one of the official Disney Princesses)
• Merida of Brave (being one of the official Disney Princesses)
• Moana
• Vanilope van Schweetz
• Tiger Lily
• Ellowny
• Rinoa
• Lena, Farris, and/or Kirile
• Garnet
• Ashe
• Anastasia. Don't look at me like that, Disney bought Fox, she counts!

Okay, Ellowny, Farris and Ashe are each a stretch, considering their respective attitudes, so at least some of the rest of the Seven New Hearts will not be actual (born) royalty, taking after the examples of Alice and Belle:

• Penelo
• Serah or Vanille
• Penny
• Olivia Flaversham
• Wendy

The next Kingdom Hearts game will be on the Nintendo Switch

• Confirmed. The Switch was one of four consoles that Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory was released on, the other four being the PS4, the Xbox One, and later the PC.

The Master of Masters is actually the future and final incarnation of Luxu/Xigbar.

Luxu/Xigbar seems to have adopted a lot of the Master's quirks, likely to cope with the strain of being incarnated over and over again. But maybe it's the other way around, and the Master of Masters acts like Xigbar because he's the final incarnation of Luxu, sent back in a Stable Time Loop to guide his younger self and fellow foretellers to whatever plans he has for the worlds.

Alternately, the Master of Masters is the future incarnation of Vanitas.

Six of the Old Masters are named for the Seven Deadly Sins, but there is no representative for Pride, which is believed to be a hint towards the Master's identity. While "Superbia" would fit the theme, it's hard to break down into a smaller name ("Super"?) like Ava(ritia), Aced(ia), Luxu(ria) or Invi(dia). On the other hand, there is another name for Pride: Vanity. In the Ancrene Wisse, Pride is represented by a Lion, which so happens to be a motif for Sora — and by extension, his doppelganger Vanitas would inherit it.

Themes aside, there are two major notes to this theory: One, after her death in KH1, Maleficent was able to time travel back to the aftermath of the Keyblade War and hijack an image of herself from before she existed. Second, Vanitas proudly declares in his final moments that he is Darkness, and he's one of the only Organization members who disappears without A) returning to the past or B) returning to another body. It's possible that Vanitas was being quite literal, and as a manifestation of darkness, is able to transcend time using darkness itself as a vessel.

The Dark Inferno is an evolved or mutated Invisible

It looks rather similar to the Invisibles, albeit with a few extra bits, it flits around and wields special swords like Invisibles do, it has a very similar "vanish and turn into balls of dark power that surround Sora and then crash in at him" attack to what the Invisibles use...

The Simpsons and/or King of the Hill might have worlds or characters in future titles.

Disney wwns Fox now, and all its IPs. And that gives Nomura so much extra content to draw from.

The Boy in White and Boy in Black are not young Eraqus and Xehanort.

• They are instead higher powers, maybe anthropomorphic personifications of Light and Dark.
  • They will serve as the true final bosses for the series
  • There is a third, female (Girl in Blue? Girl in Silver?) that we haven't seen yet. (because KH as a series seems to be fixated on boy, boy, girl trios)

Xehanort becoming a Karma Houdini was once again All According to Plan

He at one point learned that Xigbar was Luxu and since actually telling someone would put a dent in his plans, Xehanort manipulated the heroes into believing he could be Easily Forgiven so that they can do all the heavy lifting for him.

Xigbar/Luxu won't be the Big Bad of the next saga.

Nomura has stated before that he likes creating plot twists that will keep fans of their toes, Xigbar/Luxu will be set up as the Decoy Antagonist for the next saga only to revealed that the real antagonist is someone else, potentially the Master of Masters or even some new character.

Most of the game was actually a How We Got Here flashback.

• And the tutorial segment was chronologically set after the disastrous fight with Terra-Xehanort and the Demon Tide. The voiceless narrator was Kairi's heart. The seven hearts that Sora has to save were referring to Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Riku, Lea, Aqua, and Ventus.

Luxord is the Player Character from Kingdom Hearts χ

• In the original browser version of χ[chi], the player uses cards instead of medals. In all versions of the game, your cards/medals are categorized as upright or reversed, terms lifted straight from Tarot. All of Luxord's card decks in 358/2 Days, save for his Joke Weapon decks and his default deck, are named after Tarot cards. Rearranging the letters to form his true name yields Ludor, the latin word for "to play" as a possible option.
  • It also wouldn't be the first time that Square Enix had a Canon Name for a player character in a game with customization options.

Xigbar sent Luxord to find the Black Box as a Snipe Hunt.

• Since Xigbar is in fact Luxu, and has known the black box's whereabouts the entire time, it seems odd that he would send someone out on a search for it. However, the first ReMind DLC trailer hints that Luxord is on to Xigbar's secret. Not only that, but (and this might be a stretch) Xigbar's statement after he leaves may imply that he doesn't know who Luxord is supposed to be. (Considering the fact that Luxord and the other lower rank Organization XIII members are supposed to be keyblade wielders from ancient times, and only a handful actually made it into the current worldline, this fact would be very concerning for Luxu.) So to keep him off his tail, he sends Luxord out on an Impossible Task in order to keep him preoccupied until Xehanort's Keyblade War. This could also have had the benefit of distracting Maleficent and Pete.

Vanitas saying that he is the shadow Sora casts means he will return through Sora at some point.

Given that Haley Joel Osment and Miyu Irino voice both characters, it'd be easy to have Vanitas make cameos. Vanitas seemed to take a liking to being "shadow that Sora casts" and may become the successor to Sora's Rage Form. This also would serve to give fans the chance to officially play as Vanitas through the form system. Possible plot points:

• Now that Ventus had his own darkness extracted from his heart, it's likely that Vanitas would see Sora as a suitable host.
• Given that Sora may have regrets over failing his Mark of Mastery exam and being weakened by Xehanort, Vanitas has a prime opportunity to offer Sora the chance to become even more powerful through his powers. It would also serve as a good aesop to not let your resentments overpower you.
• Vanitas would serve to give Sora a potential fall from grace and redemption similar to Riku & Terra and act as a contrast to Sora's bright and cheery personality.
• Vanitas would undergo new character development and Sora learns to make peace with him, and Sora learns to master his darkness — much like Riku did — and becomes an even wiser keyblade master than he could have imagined. This also lets Vanitas to Sora be like Ansem was to Riku.

Secret Ending Significance (spoilers, obviously)

Verum Rex is a movie that Disney and Square Enix are collaborating on

• And its presence in the franchise is a promo for it.

The Secret Ending wasn't advertising the next game in the franchise

• Rather, two future Square Enix releases that have Sora and Riku as Transplants.
  • The World Ends With You 2: Sora woke up in Shibuya in the same way Neku did. Saving Kairi cost Sora his own life, but he was given an opportunity to compete in the Reapers' Game. Sora will be a partner of the protagonist of TWEWY 2. This would also mean that the Neku we encountered in Dream Drop Distance was the same Neku from the original game. Since Traverse Town is where people go when their worlds are destroyed, it's possible that Shibuya was swallowed in Darkness, but was freed not long after.
  • Verum Rex: A new IP from Square Enix that refits the unused concepts from Final Fantasy XV. Riku is encountered in a side quest looking for Sora, and Yozora has to fight the Heartless.

Sora is in a parallel version of TWEWY's Shibuya

• In "A New Day," Shinjuku is destroyed, possibly as a result of its own Reaper's Game. Assuming that Riku and Sora are not in different worlds, this means that it cannot be in the same universe as the events of TWEWY. Furthermore, when Neku is killed by Coco, his body disappears. Sora will be trying to return to life with Neku, after which they will help Riku prevent Shinjuku's destruction.
  • Sora didn't "die" overusing the Power of Waking. He Woke Up to the level of reality that Reapers, Composers and low-level Angels are in.

The Secret Ending hints about the concept of different worlds being mashed together

• The concept of the next KH game (or whatever game that relates to the secret ending) will be about pairs of Disney worlds and Original/Crossover worlds suddenly becoming single worlds. Speculated example: Deep Jungle located near the Pride Lands.

The entire Secret Episode was Yozora's own "Dive to the Heart" awakening experience

• Like Sora and Roxas before him, Yozora is experiencing his own internal awakening sequence, probably as the prologue to the start of his own adventure. Just like previous sequences we have the characters standing atop one of those stained glass murals, before it becomes a sky scraper, and the sequence ends with Yozora seemingly waking up from the dream, and even repeating the same phrase that Sora said way back in the first game in the series.

Yozora is being set up as the next protagonist of the series

• Related to the above guess; Sora's story-line will have to end sometime, and having him pass the torch to a new protagonist would be a great way to bring his arc to a close and give a new beginning to the franchise. The secret episode draws many parallels between Yozora and Sora; their designs and clothes, names (Sora, Yo-Zora-), with the whole thing playing out as if it was Yozora's own Dive to the Heart moment, and with him awakening at the end and saying the same phrase as Sora did at the start of the series. It is clear that Yozora is being set up to be a very important character in the future, not just the early appearance of a future supporting character or enemy, like previous bonus bosses, but a character with heroic goals (saying he's going to save Sora) and an independent storyline.

The next game will bring Sora into the Kingdom Hearts Chi world

• It's pretty clear, given that Sora was in the Final World and his Station of Awakening, that he's in the realm of sleep. That seems to be where the Kingdom Hearts Chi characters went to in order to avoid the disastrous events of the Keyblade War. He'd be right at home with those world-hopping keyblade wielders of yore, plus if he went there, he could discover how Ventus, Elrena, and Lauriam managed to leave and reach the present time, and free himself and possibly hundreds of other keyblade wielders.

The Riku that appears in the secret ending isn't the main Riku.

He will be revealed to be the Riku Replica, who end up in the same place as Sora.

• Jossed by Re:Mind and Melody of Memory: Riku's part of the secret ending is a recurring dream he has.

Re:Mind (again, spoilers)

Yozora is Kairi and Sora's son.

• That's why his powers aren't needed yet. Dad is going to make it back on his own, so Yoz don't have to time travel to ensure his own existence.

The DLC is a Stable Time Loop

• Future Sora's trip and interference is an explanation to why the Lingering Will disappeared. As he got destroyed while blocking Terra-Xehanort's attack.
  • Implicitly confirmed within the DLC, as Chirithy makes a point not to stray from the "true" power of waking when discussing that Sora created a time paradox the first time. Everything plays out exactly as before the second time around, just with the disembodied Sora witnessing events he wasn't present for before.

Yozora's World is, technically, in or beyond the Realm of Death

Chirithy makes a point that the Final World is where the Realms of Sleep and Death "touch", allowing Sora to subconsciously pass into it when he dreams. Assuming Yozora is able to reach the Final World the same way as Sora (as shown when he wakes up in the cab after the battle regardless of whether he wins or loses), it's possible that Yozora himself is on either side of the border — instead of slipping into the border from the Realm of Sleep, he's on his way to the Realm of Sleep from the Realm of Death. As a result, the Final World is sort of like The Gate, insofar as when someone dies in one "worldline", they pass across the border of the Final World and are reincarnated into another worldline.

Bear in mind, the original version of Versus XIII was intended to be a more morbid entry than Final Fantasy XV ended up being, with Noctis having been blessed by the death goddess Etro to see the souls of the dying. If Yozora is indeed a revamp to the original Noctis, giving him a power related to traversing death would be the next logical step, and could even hint at his means and purpose for "saving" Sora.

• This would allow Strelitzia to continue to have influence on the story even after her death, if the Nameless Star knew Yozora, is the Kairi lookalike from the Verum Rex trailer, and is also her.
• Seemingly jossed by Melody of Memory, where it’s explained that Yozora’s world, Quadratum, is the world of unreality.

Yozora knows he's in a video game, or at least uses self-aware digital world logic.

It's not a coincidence that Verum Rex is a video game in Sora's worldline. Yozora's powers and fighting style appear to be based on digital replication — scanning the Keyblade to "download" it, creating digital clones of the Gigas, creating and altering a virtual environment, and so on. His version of "saving" someone is not an offering of protection or freedom from harm, but a means of preserving their memory akin to a save file, hence the crystallization.

Yozora is, or was, Brain. The boss fight with Yozora takes place in the same data world as Union Cross.

This would explain his data-based abilities — a property of the data world itself being manipulated by someone aware of its nature — as well as his statement that "Yozora" isn't really what he looks like, and his knowledge of Sora, who to him is just a character from the Book of Prophecies. Somehow the data world and its occupants were changed into the Verum Rex world, possibly in order to rewrite the Dandelions' memories and prevent Brain from changing the Master's plan — and that his attempt to "save" Sora is also a continued attempt to derail it, by removing him from the rest of the Prophecy.

• The Nameless Star then could be either Skuld or Ava.

The next game in the series to feature Sora will include Inside Out and/or Soul

• Somehow, those two properties seem very appropriate to the predicament Sora's in at the moment, and would mesh perfectly with the scenario of The World Ends with You.

Yozora and the Commander in the limo are two different people.

• To start with, the Commander's never actually named in the Good Ending of the Secret Episode.
• The Nameless Star claims that Yozora's heart was replaced with another's, changed "beyond recognition." Yozora follows up on this by saying "this isn't what I really look like. How'd you recognize me as Yozora?" That implies the actual Yozora has a radically different appearance from the person we fight in the Secret Episode, who looks just like the Commander sleeping in the limo. It doesn't follow that they would be the same character. So what happened to the real Yozora? His identity was stolen by Luxu, probably using the same method as Xehanort pulled on Terra (heck, he may have even taught Xehanort how to do that.) Only, instead of keeping Yozora's heart imprisoned by his side, Luxu flung it into some distant world to be forgotten. The Nameless Star wouldn't know anything about what Luxu did, where Yozora's heart is, or what he looks like now: only that her friend's identity warped despite no change in his physical appearance.
• Yozora pulled a Ventus, somehow stumbling across the Commander and taking refuge within his heart. Unlike Ventus, though, Yozora is much more active, able to wander around the Realm of Sleep on his own when the Commander falls asleep and taking on the latter's appearance when he does so. In turn, the Commander is at least somewhat aware of what happens to Yozora during these outings, based on his thoughts and how the way he wakes up changes depending on whether Yozora wins or loses his fight with Sora.
• What does that make the Verum Rex game then? We only see it in the Dream version of the Toy Story world, so it's possible that game only exists there. Yozora's presence in the Realm of Sleep caused a ripple effect which created Verum Rex: a game which captures some elements of the Commander's real life, only with the Commander named Yozora instead of whatever his actual name is.
• Finally, the game's called Verum Rex, or "True King." The name of the cutscene before the Yozora battle? Falsus Rex: False King. Yozora isn't the Commander, he only looks like him.

Yozora is Noctis' Nobody

• Aside from the obvious out of universe parallels between Yozora and Noctis, many ingame statements suggest that Yozora is indeed a Nobody and that Noctis Lucis Caelum once existed within the Kingdom Hearts universe.
  • The Nameless Star claims that Yozora's heart has been changed or taken and replaced. While left vague by what that means, it does sound very much like how other individuals became Nobodies. As The Nameless Star is hinted to be the Stella Nox Fleuret Expy, it would appear Yozora was not the only one, but that something happened to the Nameless Star after she also became a Nobody.
  • Yozora states that this isn't what he normally looks like. Nobodies often take on slightly or drastically different appearances than their original selves do depending on the circumstances of their creation. For example, Axel is mostly still Lea, but with upside tear markings under his eyes, while Roxas looks more like Ventus because Ventus resided in Sora's heart at the time of his creation. It stands to reason that, if Yozora were in fact a Nobody, then what he means is that he's aware that he's gone through a drastic change, unlike many other Nobodies.
  • Out of universe, people have found various emblems on Yozora's outfit, one of which is more easily seen and the rest not so much. Skull & Crossbones emblems like Noctis' are everywhere on his outfit and can be seen very easily on his character model and FMV model. The others include Roxas' cross Nobody emblem, which is on his earrings and the checkerboard patterns on his undershirt, the latter of which can even be seen in Data Greeting if one zooms in on it. The fact that these emblems appear with such frequency on his outfit suggests that Yozora is indeed a Nobody.
  • Several of his abilities in his fight have elements of Noctis. From his teleporting, to his Armiger and his ability to summon large enemies, Yozora's attacks have various similarities that are hard to ignore. While Roxas was never shown to be able to summon, he does have various abilities that originate from Sora.

The Armored Xehanort Sora and Kairi fight, and which the Guardians of Light finish off, is...

• Possibility A: A Fusion Dance between the Replica Xehanorts, having still survived their seeming destruction by Mickey's Enduring Faith, to make one last-ditch effort to destroy the Guardians. He can still talk and has a visible face behind his helmet due to all the shards of his heart inside each Replica combining into one almost-a-heart, letting it fully develop into a form identical to himself.
• Possibility B: A time paradox created by Sora's reckless time travel to save Kairi, in which Xehanort no longer has his final shard needed to forge the χ-blade and thus travels through time himself during the Stopza from the main game's events, taking "the forbidden path" as Terranort put it to make one last attempt to stop Sora. Hence, him having no dialogue beyond his battle foley, simply showing up and going ham. In the case of this version of events, Sora creating a time paradox by having the Guardians kill a time-traveling Armored Xehanort at the same time that he, Donald and Goofy defeat χ-blade-wielding Master Xehanort, is the point at which nature opts to force him out of physical existence in order to heal all the 'wounds' in the timeline.

The girl in the Verum Rex trailer is named Sora.

• When Yozora encounters Sora, he asks him "Why are you using Sora's name?" The specific wording of the question implies that Yozora already knows someone called Sora, who is different from the Sora we know. Then, a few minutes later, he says he was told to "save Sora." In the Verum Rex trailer, we see him attempting to save the girl, in the exact same cityscape that our Sora later fights him in. From this, we can conclude that the girl's name is Sora, and she is the one Yozora was told to save.

Yozora is formerly Zack Martin, who has now grown up and changed but also lost Maddie Fitzpatrick a long time ago.

• Same reason as with Leon, but more dead serious. The girl Yozora tried to save reminded him of Maddie back when he was still with her (back when he was still Zack), but the events before Verum Rex ended up getting Maddie killed with Yozora failing to save her. Because of that event, he vowed to avenge her death... and then met the Stella-like girl from the commercial. Upon seeing the same enemies responsible for Maddie's death trying to take away the said girl away from him, he fights against them to save the girl in question and prevent another death of a loved one. The reason Cody is not involved? He was far away from it all with Bailey, with the two unaware of the events.

A possible Verum Rex spin-off (spoilers)

Power copying would be the game's primary battle mechanic

• As we saw in Sora's battle with him, he was able to copy Sora's Keyblade. His sword can copy melee weapons while his crossbow can copy projectiles.

Sora would be a secret boss fight.

• The boss fight against Yozora has two endings, depending on whether you win or lose. This leads me to believe Verum Rex will allow you to participate in that exact same fight from Yozora's point of view.

Obligatory conspiracy theory: Verum Rex would be a Franchise Killer.

• Because of Square-Enix taking Nomura away from Final Fantasy Versus XIII, turning it into Final Fantasy XV, so Nomura could focus on Kingdom Hearts, Nomura was left bitter. And he deliberately ruined Kairi's character so people would get sick of Kingdom Hearts, and set up the Foretellers to turn Sora into the Big Bad, the Master of Masters. And Verum Rex would be the culmination of Nomura's plan.

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