Haley Joel Osment has been the voice of Kingdom Hearts protagonist Sora for more than 20 years now, but it might almost be time to say goodbye.
Osment sat down with us recently for an episode of IGN Arcade where he reflected on his career, discussed his gaming habits, and more. But he also looked forward to Kingdom Hearts 4, which he admitted he has little information on as of yet.
"I hope that we hear something about [Kingdom Hearts 4] sometime soon, I guess it's rumored that there's going to be another one," he said. "I'm always the last to know, because I'm the last step in the process. So hopefully, sometime soon, I'll be back in the studio finding out what happened to everybody."
Luckily, we were able to inform him that Square Enix did confirm that a fourth mainline game was on the way. Not only that, but Kingdom Hearts 4 co-director, co-writer, and lead artist Tetsuya Nomura said in a recent interview that the upcoming sequel would move the story of the series toward its end. With that news, Osment had this to say about potentially getting ready to say goodbye to Sora:
"You know, I'm sure that [Nomura] has great plans to wrap it up in a satisfying way. And I think that sometimes that's the best thing to do, even if you have something that you love and you feel like you want to play it forever, to tie it up in a nice way and not let it drag out beyond where the creator wants it to go. I think that's the way to go. And clearly there's many, many hours of gameplay for people to go back and revisit."
Osment first voiced Sora in the 2002 original Kingdom Hearts and has since reprised the role in a whopping 11 games since then, in addition to providing voicework for the character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He also voices Vanita in the series.
Square Enix first officially announced Kingdom Hearts 4 back in 2022, but we've gotten precious little information since then, and it was a no-show at this year's Summer Game Fest. For everything we do know so far, check out our roundup, and watch the full IGN Arcade episode below:
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she's not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
