Kingdom Keepers

Five young teens, Finn, Willa, Charlene, Maybeck, and Philby, have been selected to serve as holographic theme park guides, Disney Hosts Interactives (DHI), in Walt Disney World. Thanks to an ability programmed in their virtual avatars by the Imagineers of Disney in the DHI technology the five teens are transported every night into the park as holograms while they sleep. They find themselves in the middle of a war against various Disney villains called the Overtakers, led by Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, and they must stop them from taking over the park and then the world.

Things have been relatively quiet for the past few months, until things go wrong at DHI day at Magic Kingdom. The Overtakers are back, and this time the stakes are even higher. This book introduces the Fairlies, or Fairly Humans, a group of people with special powers; a Fairlie named Jez has gone missing, and her sister, Amanda recruits the help of the Keepers to help her find Jez. The group searches for clues to her disappearance while also trying to keep the Overtakers at bay in Disney's Animal Kingdom, where the Overtakers have gained control of the computer servers with the intent to wreak havoc. The Keepers must find Jez and destroy the Overtakers' servers.

After Wayne, their friend, mentor, and head Imagineer, disappeared during the events at Animal Kingdom, Finn, Philby, Willa, Charlene, and Maybeck suspect the worst. The Overtakers would like nothing more than to eliminate Wayne, or worse, to use his power to their own ends. Their search takes the Keepers, plus Amanda and Jez, into Hollywood Studios and Epcot, where they must fight through puzzles, giant snakes, and deal with Maleficent and her friends while discovering new truths about themselves.

For the five teens who modeled as Disney Hologram Imaging hosts, life is beginning to settle down when an intriguing video arrives to Philby's computer at school. It's a call for action: the Overtakers seem to be plotting to attempt a rescue, led by the Evil Queen and Cruella De Vil, of two of their leaders, both of whom the Disney Imagineers locked away following a violent encounter in Epcot.

Spring break for the Keepers means a DHI cruise from Florida through the Panama canal to Los Angeles, with stops in exotic locations—including Castaway Cay, Disney's private island. However, for the Keepers the vacation may not be as much of a break as they'd hoped. With an ongoing battle for Walt Disney World's engineering base back home, and Overtakers aboard the ship plotting something catastrophic, the Keepers are in a battle for their lives and the lives of the guests aboard the ship.

The five Kingdom Keepers and their core friends have uncovered a startling truth: Maleficent and the Overtakers are plotting a catastrophic event that could have repercussions far beyond the world of Disney.

The Keepers have enjoyed three years of relative quiet, but as they get ready to graduate high school, the Overtakers, and a nightmare they left buried in an ancient temple in Mexico, are rising again. This time they are headed to Disneyland, the park where it all began. The Overtakers are done playing games, and the Keepers are in more danger than ever. The only one who may be able to save the kingdom is none other than Disney's most beloved icon, but he has been missing for years and time is running out.

A related spin off book that follows and delves more in depth into the world and life of the Fairlies Jess and Amanda.

Written with Brooke Muschott (as Jess) and Elizabeth Hagenlocher (as Mattie),[7] this adventure focuses on Amanda, who is searching for the missing Kingdom Keeper Finn Whitman. Calling on her own gift (telekinesis), her sister Jez' ability to dream the future, and their fellow Fairlie Mattie Weaver's unexplained ability to read minds through physical contact, the three gifted girls must navigate treachery, deception, and the stubborn, unwilling parents of the missing Keepers if they plan to save their friends.

This is an ebook novella focusing on the Fairlie sisters. It picks up after Kingdom Keepers VI: Dark Passage and leads up to Book VII: The Insider. Unforeseen opens with Jess dreaming of “cracks” in Disneyland. As Jess and Amanda set out to find answers, she encounters an old man with secrets, a young Imagineer-in-training whose future Jess wants to see, and a treasured wonderland about to shatter.

The Kingdom Keepers series was followed by its sequel series, The Return. The theme that Pearson had wanted to explore was a fictional Imagineering school and the origins of the Overtakers, the books' villains. A father and son, who were fans of the books, initially suggested the concept of King Arthur's Carousel being a means of time travel, and the protagonist using it to go back to Disneyland opening day. Pearson was granted access to the Disney Archives to research Disneyland's opening day.[8]

In the first book, the Keepers are about to go off to college, while the Fairlie sisters are attending the Disney School of Imagineering. Finn is the only one who believes there is something else left to do—namely, that Walt's pen is not where it needs to be in the past—and attempts to follow Wayne's final clues.

The Keepers eventually discover that the music box in Walt's apartment opens an anomaly on a horse on King Arthur Carousel, allowing its rider to travel through time. It is up to the Kingdom Keepers to return to the place, and time, they are most needed—Disneyland's opening day.

In the second book, the Keepers have successfully arrived at Disneyland's Opening Day in 1955, there to track down Walt's pen and ensure that it is in the right place in the future. Compared to earlier missions, this seems a simple task, especially with the help of their old mentor Wayne, a teen worker at the park in 1955. But they face problems: although the Overtakers do not yet exist, there is a group of regular people who want to stop them and use Walt's magic against him. To make matters worse, Tia Dalma, in the present, has secretly reformed the Overtakers and plans to wreak havoc on the Keepers' plans.

In the third book, Finn and the other Keepers, now joined in the past by Amanda and Jess, have decided to make use of the fact that they cannot yet return home and stop Hollingsworth from creating the Overtakers. Marking the end of the sequel series, the book ends with the Keepers tearfully saying goodbye to this tumultuous era of their life.[9] [10]

On April 6, 2010, Disney released an online game entitled Kingdom Keepers Online. The game is collaborative, as all players control one of five selectable characters through 2,500 levels. Each level is procedurally generated and gameplay is action based.

On March 24, 2013, Disney and interactive tech company Coliloquy launched Kingdom Keepers Insider, a website and mobile app that enables readers to interact with Pearson and impact how the final book in the series will be written.[24] Users can vote on elements such as potential plot points and may also submit ideas for character dialogue. The site features other elements such as chapter outlines posted by Pearson.[25][26]

Kevin Smith revealed on Fatman Beyond that he was brought in by Disney to help develop a potential television series, based on the Kingdom Keepers book series, for Disney+. He added that it would have utilized the same technology used for The Mandalorian to create virtual backgrounds. He later confirmed that it was cancelled because it would have used too many IPs.[27]