History Trivia / KingdomHeartsII

* CelebrityVoiceActor: Ansem The Wise's voice was provided by Creator/ChristopherLee, even as other major Hollywood celebrities who were part of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' were recast for this outing.

** Creator/MingNaWen and Creator/PatMorita reprise their roles as Mulan and The Emperor in the Land of Dragons; it was the last voice role for Morita, as he had died a few months before the game released.

** Creator/MaeWhitman replaces Christy Carlson Romano as Yuffie.
** Creator/DougErholtz replaces Creator/DavidBoreanaz as Leon.
** Mena Suvari replaces Music/MandyMoore as Aerith.

* RoleReprisal:

* SoMyKidsCanWatch: Part of Boxleitner's reason for the RoleReprisal. His youngest son was playing through the game and got to the Space Paranoids level…

* TheOriginalDarrin: Creator/SeanAstin as Hercules was replaced by Hercules’s original voice actor from the film, Tate Donovan.* TheOtherDarrin:

* SoMyKidsCanWatch: Part of Boxleitner's reason for the RoleReprisal. His youngest son was playing through the game and got to the Space Paranoids level...

* TheOtherDarrin:

** Creator/SeanAstin as Hercules was replaced by Hercules's original voice actor from the film, Tate Donovan.

** Several Disney characters were given this treatment from their source material, at least one in every world. Agrabah (Genie), Beast's Castle ([[AuthorExistenceFailure Lumiere]]), The Land of Dragons (Mushu), and Olympus Coliseum (Phil) are all missing only one of their original voice actors each, though all are replaced by their official [[TheOtherDarrin other Darrins]]. Simba, Shenzi, Nala, and Timon from Pride Lands do not have their original actors back, nor do Flounder and Sebastian in Atlantica, the MCP and Sark for Space Paranoids, or anyone at all in Port Royal, 100 Acre Wood, and Timeless River. However, most of them are replaced by their official other Darrins, meaning those voices are reprised. Simba and Mushu are mixed cases- their voice actors in KH provided the singing voices in the movies for their characters ([[https://youtu.be/LF10eEFpLrc?t=3m54s apparently, in Mushu's case]])

** Several Disney characters were given this treatment from their source material, at least one in every world. Agrabah (Genie), Beast's Castle ([[AuthorExistanceFailure Lumiere]]), The Land of Dragons (Mushu), and Olympus Coliseum (Phil) are all missing only one of their original voice actors each, though all are replaced by their official [[TheOtherDarrin other Darrins]]. Simba, Shenzi, Nala, and Timon from Pride Lands do not have their original actors back, nor do Flounder and Sebastian in Atlantica, the MCP and Sark for Space Paranoids, or anyone at all in Port Royal, 100 Acre Wood, and Timeless River. However, most of them are replaced by their official other Darrins, meaning those voices are reprised. Simba and Mushu are mixed cases- their voice actors in KH provided the singing voices in the movies for their characters ([[https://youtu.be/LF10eEFpLrc?t=3m54s apparently, in Mushu's case]])

* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: The ''Final Mix'' version includes a ton of extra content compared to vanilla ''Kingdom Hearts II'', and it is topped by ''Final Mix+'', which contains on top of that a remake of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories''. While the latter eventually made it to North America as a standalone game, neither ''Final Mix'' nor ''Final Mix+'' were released outside of Japan until a ''third'' UpdatedRerelease: ''Kingdom Hearts HD II.5 HD [=ReMIX=]''.

* CastingGag: According to Creator/PaulStPeter, he got the role of Xemnas because the casting director thought he had played Vicious from ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' (actually played by Creator/SkipStellrecht), who shares a voice with Xemnas in the Japanese version: Creator/NorioWakamoto.

** Indeed, this is common in most worlds- though all of them are missing at least one.

* TalkingToHimself: In the Japanese version, Donald Duck, Genie and Stitch are voiced by the same seiyuu, Creator/KoichiYamadera.
** Sark and the MCP, just like in the source material, are this, though this time provided by Corey Burton.

** Creator/RichardEpcar replaces Billy Zane as Ansem, Seeker of Darkness.

** Doug Erholtz replaces David Boreanaz as Leon.
** Mena Suvari replaces Mandy Moore as Aerith.
** George Newbern replaces Lance Bass as Sephiroth.
** Sean Astin as Hercules was replaced by Hercules's original voice actor from the film, Tate Donovan.

* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: Between ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' and this game, Billy Zane starred in the Turkish film ''Valley Of The Wolves: Iraq''. It portrayed American soldiers fighting in Iraq as monsters, earning severe criticism and getting the movie declared "Anti-American Propaganda" by many critics. Creator/{{Disney}} decided they didn't want him working on the series anymore due to the controversy, so his role as Ansem, Seeker of Darkness was recast to Creator/RichardEpcar, [[FlashbackWithTheOtherDarrin including for flashback scenes]].

** George Newborn replaces Lance Bass as Sephiroth.

** David Warner wanted to reprise his roles as the MCP and Sark, but he was not able to since he was committed to another role at the time.

* CastingGag: A ''very'' lucky subversion happened with Creator/PaulStPeter, who confirmed that he got the role of Xemnas because the casting director mistook him for the one who played [[Anime/CowboyBebop Vicious]], who shared a voice with Xemnas in the Japanese version: Creator/NorioWakamoto. However, Vicious was actually played by Creator/SkipStellrecht, not Paul St. Peter. But as it would turn out, Paul's performance as Xemnas much better matched Wakamoto's than if Stellrecht had reprised his Vicious voice (which sounds much more [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Sephiroth-esque]]), and the fandom generally [[CantUnhearIt now can't imagine Xemnas being voiced by anyone else in English.]]

* CastingGag: A ''very'' lucky subversion happened with Creator/PaulStPeter, who confirmed that he got the role of Xemnas because the casting director mistook him for the one who played [[Anime/CowboyBebop Vicious]], who shared a voice with Xemnas in the Japanese version: Creator/NorioWakamoto. However, Vicious was actually played by Creator/SkipStellrecht, not Paul St. Peter. But as it would turn out, Paul's performance as Xemnas much better matched Wakamoto's than if Stellrecht had reprised his Vicious voice, and the fandom generally [[CantUnhearIt now can't imagine Xemnas being voiced by anyone else in English.]]

* CastingGag: A ''very'' lucky subversion happened with Creator/PaulStPeter, who confirmed that he got the role of Xemnas because the casting director mistook him for the one who played [[Anime/CowboyBebop Vicious]], who shared a voice with Xemnas in the Japanese version: Creator/NorioWakamoto. However, Vicious was actually played by Creator/SkipStellrecht, not Paul St. Peter. But as it would turn out, Paul's performance as Xemnas much better matched Wakamoto's than if Stellrecht had reprised his Vicious voice, and fans now can't imagine Xemnas being voiced by anyone else in English.

-->"That's ''you,'' Dad? You were cool!"''

* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: The ''Final Mix'' version includes a ton of extra content compared to vanilla ''Kingdom Hearts II'', and it is topped by ''Final Mix+'', which contains on top of that a remake of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories''. While the latter eventually made it to North America as a standalone game, neither ''Final Mix'' nor ''Final Mix+'' were released outside of Japan until a ''third'' UpdatedRerelease: ''Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 [=ReMIX=]''.

** Deep Dive is not a scene from ''Kingdom Hearts II''. It's a scene from ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2''.

** The Kingdom Hearts version of Hollow Bastion, specifically the Great Crest, appears as the place where Sora first met the surviving members of the Organization, after the trio slays a horde of Neoshadows.

** Mena Suvari replaces Mandy Moore voiced Aerith.

** Meaghan Jette Martin replaces Brittany Snow as Naminé in the ''II.5 Final [=ReMIX=]'' version, but only for the scenes that weren't in the original [=PS2=] version.

** Buzz and Woody from ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' were going to be a Summon in the ''Final Mix'' version, but were scrapped. Their unfinished models are still in the game files.

*** They finally appear in VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII with their own world.

* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: Between ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' and this game, Billy Zane starred in the Turkish film ''Valley Of The Wolves: Iraq''. It portrayed American soldiers fighting in Iraq as monsters, earning severe criticism and getting the movie declared "Anti-American Propaganda" by many critics. Creator/{{Disney}} decided they didn't want him working on the series anymore due to the controversy, so his role as Ansem, Seeker of Darkness was recast to Creator/RichardEpcar, including for flashback scenes.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Creator/TetsuyaNomura had originally planned to only include ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' characters that he personally designed, as he is more familiar with them. He eventually caved in to the urging of the staff, which is how Setzer from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' and Vivi from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' were added to the game.

* MemeAcknowledgment: Even Xemnas's English voice actor, Paul St. Peter [[https://youtu.be/6a7bqygux6U?t=113 calls the character "Mansex"]].