Kingdom Hearts 4 Star Wars World teased in debut trailer

Kingdom Hearts 4‘s official announcement on Sunday was relatively light on details. It is known that Sora will return with Donald, Goofy and Goofy for an adventure of a different kind that will kick off a new story line. We know that Sora will battle the Heartless in the Quadratum, and at least one semi-new character, Strelizia, will play a role.

Oh, and Sora may finally visit a galaxy far, far away, based on a possible clue in the debut trailer for Kingdom Hearts 4.

While much of the announcement trailer for Kingdom Hearts 4 is set in the Tokyo-like Quadratum, there’s a brief dreamlike sequence set in a forest. That forest appears to be teeming with redwoods, much like the forest moon of Endor from Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi. While a verdant redwood forest might not be enough to go on, fans noticed one more detail that likely points to a new Star Wars world: the foot of an AT-ST.

Image: Square Enix/Disney

It’s barely noticeable among the rocks and stream cutting through the forest floor, but the object in the upper right of that still frame sure does look like an Imperial AT-ST (aka chicken walker) foot. That’s all the Kingdom Hearts fanbase, and equally obsessive Star Wars fans, needed to fire up the speculation hyper drive.

Disney, of course, has owned the Star Wars franchise since 2012, when the company acquired Lucasfilm for $4 billion. Donald, Sora and Goofy are free to visit Wookiees and Ewoks on Endor’s forest Moon or other Star Wars planets.

The Kingdom Hearts franchise has largely played within traditional Disney and Pixar worlds, with Kingdom Hearts 3 exploring the worlds of Toy Story, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Tangled. However, series director Tetsuya Namura declined to travel the Star Wars or Disney-owned Marvel worlds. Maybe the lure of a lightsaber keysblade is too tempting for Nomura.

Kingdom Hearts 4 does not have an announced release date or platforms yet.