'Kingdom Hearts 3': Winnie the Pooh Reportedly Censored Out, Square Enix Responds

A recent trailer for Kingdom Hearts 3 showed off the beloved honey-loving bear Pooh and pals! Apparently, not everyone was loving the Hundred Acre Woods, because the Chinese version of the video reportedly completely censored him out.

Several reports have been circulating that the Chinese version of the Kingdom Hearts trailer was vastly different than what we've seen. Instead of our favorite crop top-loving buddy, he's just a weird blob of white-out. It's strange, and raised questions when screenshots of the censorship leaked.

The reason for the censorship? In true Internet fashion, it all comes down to a meme. Back in 2015, there was apparently a meme circulating around that had Chinese president Xi Jinping likened to that of Winnie the Pooh using a photo of him in a military position. Quickly, he set to work to ban the image, reportedly citing that it was "a serious effort to undermine the dignity of the presidential office and Xi himself."

It is likely that this censorship was a preemptive move to halt any future memes, but we all know that's not how the Internet works. In the meantime, we did reach out to Square Enix for a statement. "Unfortunately, Square Enix does not have a comment to share at this time," a Square Enix representative said.

Winnie fiasco aside, it's been great news for the highly anticipated game, especially with the recent announcement that the Kingdom Hearts III title has officially gone gold! Kingdom Hearts III will finally be releasing on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on January 29, 2019. You can learn even more about the upcoming game with our previous coverage here, as well as a snippet about the game from Square Enix below:

"Kingdom Hearts III tells the story of the power of friendship as Sora and his friends embark on a perilous adventure. Set in a vast array of Disney worlds, Kingdom Hearts follows the journey of Sora, a young boy and unknowing heir to a spectacular power. Sora is joined by Donald Duck and Goofy, two emissaries sent by King Mickey from Disney Castle, to stop an evil force known as the Heartless from invading and overtaking the universe. Through the power of positivity and friendship, Sora, Donald and Goofy unite with iconic Disney-Pixar characters old and new to prevail tremendous challenges and persevere against the darkness threatening their worlds."