Disney+ Adding GenAI Tools To Let Users Craft Short Clips Featuring Company Characters

Disney is preparing to roll out its most dramatic overhaul of Disney+ since the streamer launched in 2019, including a full-on embrace of generative AI tools for users.

During the company’s latest earnings call (full transcription here), CEO Bob Iger outlined a sweeping plan that will include the addition of AI-driven features which will allow subscribers to generate short-form content using Disney IP. While details remain limited, the company says users will eventually be able to create personalized, AI-animated moments featuring characters from across its library within a tightly controlled sandbox.

“The other thing that we’re really excited about that AI is going to give us the ability to do is to provide users at Disney+ with a much more engaged experience,” he said, “including the ability for them to create user-generated content and to consume user-generated content, mostly short form from others.”

Iger described the update as a major shift in how Disney+ operates: not just a streaming service, but “a portal to all things Disney.” AI, he said, will be central to creating a more “engaged experience” by enabling subscribers to produce, for lack of a better word, their own content built from Disney assets. The outcomes will skew short-form and socially shareable, suggesting Disney is eyeing, at least initially, the type of content creation that fuels digital-first platforms like TikTok, but in this case, on Disney’s own service and within a framework designed to protect its IP.

Behind the scenes, Disney has been holding what Iger called “productive conversations” with major AI companies. Although he declined to name any, it seems unlikely that Midjourney is among them, given Disney is currently suing that company for training on and producing images of Disney-copyrighted characters and artwork.

In other words, Disney is willing to sue over unauthorized AI use of its characters as it builds tools for authorized use under its own terms.

For many animation artists and studios, Disney’s move enflames anxieties about AI-generated content and its impact on production pipelines. A Disney-sanctioned AI playground could open interactive possibilities for fans but spell disaster for content creators.

But Iger was clear during the call that whatever comes next will launch only within a “very strict” environment built to defend the company’s control of Disney’s assets.

The CEO did not offer a timeline for rollout, but the company’s message is unmistakable: the next era of Disney+ won’t just stream animation, it will let users “make” their own.