KINGDOM HEARTS middle-grade novel series by Brooke Vitale cancelled

[Keyblade Knight 1st Class]

This is a bummer man

 

[Keyblade Knight 1st Class]

I'm now just waiting for the rumored Disney+ series to get the axe

 

[Chie]

To me this is a really ill-advised project in general, but since it got written at all, I still really want to see it.

The canon/non-canon distinction is totally meaningless. Whether the publisher labeled it as "canon" or not, it is extremely unlikely that its contents would ever impact Nomura + co-writers, so it doesn't actually matter. A company coming out and telling you something is canon or not instead of demonstrating it through the text is laughable to me, and people shouldn't take it very seriously. (star wars...)

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

But... is it allowed to sell a book on an ip that doesn't belong to you?

Yes. Scholastic 1) is a book publisher and was probably working with Disney, the owner of the IP, on the series and 2) bought the license to publish KH books wholesale with other Disney IPs as that is how Disney sells use of their IP to companies. It is all bundled together.

 

[AegisXIII]

Yes. Scholastic 1) is a book publisher and was probably working with Disney, the owner of the IP, on the series and 2) bought the license to publish KH books wholesale with other Disney IPs as that is how Disney sells use of their IP to companies. It is all bundled together.

Interesting. But still, you need to get the approval from the main company. XD

 

[KudoTsurugi]

Well, that’s a shame. I would’ve liked to see what the books could bring to the table.

 

[May-Jor]

Interesting. But still, you need to get the approval from the main company. XD

You mean Square? Not really since they have not legal rights to it. Disney only consults Nomura as a courtesy.

 

[AegisXIII]

You mean Square? Not really since they have not legal rights to it. Disney only consults Nomura as a courtesy.

Is KH pure property of Disney? I thought it was more like a spiderman sony-marvel situation where everyone bring their characters.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Is KH pure property of Disney? I thought it was more like a spiderman sony-marvel situation where everyone bring their characters.

No, Disney owns the IP full-stop. Nothing is stopping them from ditching Nomura besides not wanting to ruin a profitable and working relationship with Square Enix. The only thing SE owns are the FF and TWEWY characters.

The contract is a bit more complex in that SE has sole exclusive merchandising rights but Disney found a loophole in that by selling the IP’s license wholesale with all of their other IP, and there are other nuances besides that that remain unknown by the public, but if Disney decided tomorrow that they were publishing their own KH game without SE, they absolutely could and they would be within their legal right to do so.

(Nomura has the power of final say in things, too, something I’m sure he negotiated into his contract so that is also a thing)

They don’t because they never get any of their attempts off the ground lolol but also because they do respect Nomura and Nomura IS KH. It’s his ideas and his creations that make the series so profitable.

 

[AegisXIII]

No, Disney owns the IP full-stop. Nothing is stopping them from ditching Nomura besides not wanting to ruin a profitable and working relationship with Square Enix. The only thing SE owns are the FF and TWEWY characters.

The contract is a bit more complex in that SE has sole exclusive merchandising rights but Disney found a loophole in that by selling the IP’s license wholesale with all of their other IP, and there are other nuances besides that that remain unknown by the public, but if Disney decided tomorrow that they were publishing their own KH game without SE, they absolutely could and they would be within their legal right to do so.

(Nomura has the power of final say in things, too, something I’m sure he negotiated into his contract so that is also a thing)

They don’t because they never get any of their attempts off the ground lolol but also because they do respect Nomura and Nomura IS KH. It’s his ideas and his creations that make the series so profitable.

Nice, thanks for the explanation.
The more I learn about the contracts that tie the different parties, the less I understand how this series managed to come to existence. it should not exist. All the odds are against it. And yet it does. Amazing.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Nice, thanks for the explanation.
The more I learn about the contracts that tie the different parties, the less I understand how this series managed to come to existence. it should not exist. All the odds are against it. And yet it does. Amazing.

I’ve been told by Disney staff in the know that the contract absolutely is a piece of work lol

I’d love to see it one day just to know what sort of chaos Disney and Squaresoft had their lawyers concoct.

 

[AegisXIII]

I’ve been told by Disney staff in the know that the contract absolutely is a piece of work lol

I’d love to see it one day just to know what sort of chaos Disney and Squaresoft had their lawyers concoct.

We also have to be aware that there is a high chance that Disney and Square might not see eye to eye forever. As long as the series brings money, we should be fine I guess.

 

[AdrianXXII]

I’ve been told by Disney staff in the know that the contract absolutely is a piece of work lol

I’d love to see it one day just to know what sort of chaos Disney and Squaresoft had their lawyers concoct.

It sounds like it's a pretty crazy one, doubt it'll come to see the light of day anytime soon though. Overall the contract seems to be working well for both. Square must be getting enough out of it to continue with a series, in which all they create belongs to another company.

We also have to be aware that there is a high chance that Disney and Square might not see eye to eye forever. As long as the series brings money, we should be fine I guess.

Yeah, agreed. For now it seems to be working pretty well, but who knows what the future will hold. I especially wonder what'll happen once Nomura is no longer active at Square. My best guess is the series will either stop or be rebooted.

 

[PikaPal]

Well damn.

Sure sucks to hear about it. Would have been pretty interested to see how it would have been like.

 

[Soldier]

Can’t believe we got that trash (they didn’t even include Xigbar but have a page about Luxu that doesn’t even mention his time as Braig/Xigbar) but not Brooke’s book.

Well that's just how Scholastic operates. I remember getting a Bakugan handbook back in the day when that was insanely popular. Needless to say, it was on par with the Kingdom Hearts handbook. Looks nice, not great for information.

 

[Deleted member 246005]

I'm not super upset because I didn't know alot about it. But it's still a bummer her work never got to see the light of day.

 

[MATGSY]

So much for my dreams of a KH/Animorphs crossover.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

So much for my dreams of a KH/Animorphs crossover.

Excuse me that would have been (horrifying) amazing

 

[Zettaflare]

So much for my dreams of a KH/Animorphs crossover.

Bet Sora would of loved the opportunity to gain morphing powers and become any animal

 

[Violet Pluto]

Bet Sora would of loved the opportunity to gain morphing powers and become any animal

Knowing the track record of the Animorphs in series he'd either become a nosflit first thing, or be heavily injured and about to die before changing back. Animorphs is one of the darkest series I've ever had the pleasure of reading, Sora would not have a great time.