A Famitsu column with game director Masahiro Sakurai revealed that Sora from the Kingdom Hearts series was able to get into the game because of a chance meeting that he had with a Disney executive at an unspecified awards ceremony where they expressed how cool it would be for him to be a part of the Super Smash Bros. roster. This soon led to negotiations between Nintendo, Square Enix, and Disney that eventually got the extremely highly requested character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Before then, Sakurai admitted he and Nintendo thought getting the Disney-owned character was a total impossibility.