Disney and OpenAI make a rich deal: Mickey Mouse and the team are coming to Sora and ChatGPT

What does it mean to them in practice? In its Sora video application, OpenAI can generate short videos based on useful prompts, using more than 200 characters, locations, costumes and vehicles from the Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars worlds. A similar package goes to ChatGPT Images, so with a few words you can get officially approved pictures with, say, Elsa and Anna, Iron Man or Yoda.

There is another side to the deal: Disney is becoming a big user of OpenAI technology. The plan is to use the OpenAI API for new features in the Disney+ app, release ChatGPT to employees as an internal tool, and co-invent new interactive formats that combine movies, series, and generative AI. Some of the best Sora videos that fans make with Disney licenses should č even appear on Disney+.

Of course, there are also limitations. In the license, there are no rights to the face and voice of the actors, so the AI ​​must not generate, for example, Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark or the original voices of the characters. OpenAI and Disney also emphasize additional filters: banning illegal and harmful content, protecting the rights of IP holders, and respecting people’s right to control their own image and voice.

With this move, Disney is officially entering AI, but on its own terms. Instead of fighting with all possible models who “steal the style” of their designs, they choose one partner and agree on how their catalog can be used. Additionally, this sets a precedent for the entire industry: if it works, other studios will likely seek similar licensing deals with AI platforms.

However, deal moreć causes nervousness among actors, animators and cartoonists. The fear is clear: if the studio and the AI ​​tool can quickly put together new scenes with known characters, how much longer will they need people for marketing materials, short formats or even entire projects. That’s why CEO Bob Iger publicly repeats that the agreement “is not a threat to the creators” but a way for fans to get new ways of interaction, but that discussion will certainly not stop.

So moreć in early 2026, we should be able to make short AI videos and pictures with Mickey, Marvel heroes or Star Wars characters in Sora and ChatGPT – and that’s completely legal, with Disney’s approval. How exactly the environment will look, how much it will be free, and what will be paid for, we have yet to see, but one part of the “Disney vault” is officially opened to AI generation.