Square announces Kingdom Hearts voice talent

Square has divulged the specifics regarding the voice talent it will use in Kingdom Hearts, its upcoming RPG collaboration with Disney. The game, which takes place in a variety of Disney-inspired environments and stars a gang of characters from both Disney and Square's universes, will feature a fairly large group of Hollywood voice talent. Sora, the game's primary protagonist, will be voiced by Haley Joel Osment, who starred in The Sixth Sense and Artificial Intelligence. Sora's older friend, Riku, will be played by TV's David Gallagher, who is known for his role in the popular series Seventh Heaven, while Hayden Panettiere from Ally McBeal will voice the role of Kairi. Various other popular faces will provide the voices of the game's supporting characters, including Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings), Lance Bass (from the popular group *NSYNC), David Boreanaz (from the TV series Angel), Mandy Moore (A Walk to Remember), and Christy Romano (Even Stevens). Finally, according to Square, several of the Disney characters will be voiced by the actors who played them in their respective films, though no particulars have been announced.

Kingdom Hearts has already been released in Japan, and it is currently undergoing localization for release in North America. The game is scheduled for release in North America in October. For more information on it, check out our previous coverage of the game.