Disney licenses its characters for Sora

Disney and OpenAI have agreed to let Sora generate short videos featuring more than 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars. Fans will be able to create these scenes by writing a prompt, watch them and share them on social media, although the deal still depends on final contracts and corporate approvals.

The license will last three years and cover recognizable characters, costumes, vehicles, objects and settings. They will include Mickey Mouse, Stitch, Ariel, Elsa, Simba, Iron Man, Deadpool, Darth Vader, Yoda and many more.

The key limitation is that actors' voices and likenesses, along with those of other talent, are not included. The tool will be able to use animated or illustrated versions of the characters, but it will not create authorized representations of real people.

What fans will be able to do

Sora, OpenAI's text-to-video platform, will be able to turn simple instructions into short clips starring these characters. For example, you could ask for a scene of Stitch exploring a spaceship or Spider-Man moving through a city with an animated look.

In addition, ChatGPT Images will be able to create images from a few words using the same intellectual property. OpenAI and Disney expect these features to begin generating fan-inspired content in early 2026.

A selection of videos created with Sora could also make it to Disney+, although not as an automatic catalog of everything users produce. Disney is talking about curated content and new experiences for its subscribers, developed together with OpenAI.

Disney will also buy OpenAI technology

The deal goes beyond licensing characters. Disney will become a major OpenAI customer and use its APIs, which let companies integrate AI models into other products, to create new tools and experiences, including some for Disney+.

The company will also roll out ChatGPT to its employees. As part of the deal, Disney will invest $1 billion in OpenAI and receive options to buy a larger stake in the future.

For OpenAI, the partnership provides authorized access to one of entertainment's largest character libraries. For Disney, it offers a way to test how AI can expand the relationship between its stories and audiences without relying only on movies, series or theme parks.

Content control will be the key limit

Both companies say they will put measures in place to protect users and creators. These will include age-appropriate policies, safeguards against illegal or harmful content, and mechanisms to respect the rights of copyright owners.

In practice, the experience will depend on which requests Sora allows and how it filters the results. Licensing a character does not mean that every scene, combination or use will automatically be permitted.

The deal is not yet complete: it still needs final contracts, approval from the boards of directors and other standard conditions. If completed, it will mark an important transition: characters you could previously see only in content produced by Disney may also appear in videos you create, within limits set by the company.