When Sora was introduced as the final playable fighter for the Switch's Smash Bros. Ultimate, fans were amazed that such a collaboration had been able to happen between Nintendo, Disney, and Square Enix. Now, Smash Bros. creator Sakurai has explained in a Weekly Famitsu column how the deal was made, as reported by Kotaku.

"As I think some can imagine, the barriers for Sora entering the battle were quite high," Sakurai acknowledged in his column. "Even though players' expectations were great, I honestly thought it was impossible."

The saga began with Sora becoming the most requested character in Smash Ultimate's Fighter Ballot--which Nintendo didn't reveal at the time, as the team thought it would be basically impossible to get the Kingdom Hearts character into Smash. The concept only started to look a little more likely after Sakurai met a Disney representative by chance at an awards night, who said they would like to see Sora join the battle.