Late last year, Disney announced it was joining forces with OpenAI, investing a billion dollars and opening the gates for hundreds of Disney characters to become fair game on OpenAI’s Sora video platform. (Hollywood’s unions were not impressed.) But with today’s announcement that OpenAI is shuttering Sora, the Disney deal is off.
Here’s what was at stake. In a press release shared December 11, 2025, Disney touted the partnership: “As part of this new, three-year licensing agreement, Sora will be able to generate short, user-prompted social videos that can be viewed and shared by fans, drawing from a set of more than 200 animated, masked, and creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars, including costumes, props, vehicles, and iconic environments.”
“In addition, ChatGPT Images will be able to turn a few words by the user into fully generated images in seconds, drawing from the same intellectual property. The agreement does not include any talent likenesses or voices. Alongside the licensing agreement, Disney will become a major customer of OpenAI, using its APIs to build new products, tools, and experiences, including for Disney+, and deploying ChatGPT for its employees.”
That’s no longer in play. As the Hollywood Reporter writes, the end of Sora means the end of OpenAI’s Disney deal.
However, the Mouse House isn’t turning its back on AI. Far from it. In a statement to the trade, the company explained, “As the nascent AI field advances rapidly, we respect OpenAI’s decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere.”
“We appreciate the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we learned from it, and we will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators.”
So even without OpenAI by its side, Disney isn’t going to stop the slop. It will embrace the slop while also trying to keep a handle on its precious IP as much as possible. Good luck with that, we guess?
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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