Disney+ Just Made Its Boldest Move Yet — And Fans Are Divided

Disney is about to poke the hornet nest. The company is getting ready to let AI-driven, short-form user videos live inside Disney+, a move that will light up every dinner-table argument in Hollywood.

On Thursday, during Disney's fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings call, CEO Bob Iger did the usual numbers-and-highlights routine. Then he pivoted to the thing everyone will be talking about: a major Disney+ revamp built around AI and user creativity. He called it the biggest product and tech overhaul the streamer has had since launching in 2019.

The headline change: Disney wants subscribers to be able to make and watch short, AI-assisted videos built around its brands. Iger framed it as a way to make Disney+ feel more alive and participatory, not just a library you scroll through.

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

If that sounds familiar, it should. He did not name-check Sora, but what he described echoes what OpenAI's Sora tech makes possible right now: short, prompt-based video generation that has been flooding feeds with clips riffing on instantly recognizable IP. That is exactly the kind of thing Disney has historically tried to keep tight control over, which is why this is eyebrow-raising.

Context whiplash alert: back in June, Disney teamed up with Universal to sue Midjourney, accusing the AI platform of infringing their copyrights by using studio-owned characters in AI-generated videos. Fast-forward to now, and Iger says Disney has been having 'productive conversations' with AI companies to make sure whatever comes next can 'protect the IP.' Translation: they want the engagement, but they are trying to build guardrails.

• When this was said: Thursday's fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings call
• What is changing: Disney+ will add tools and a space for short-form, Gen-AI user-generated content
• How it will feel: more interactive, with viewers creating and watching each other's short clips tied to Disney brands
• What it resembles: the current wave of AI-made short videos enabled by tools like OpenAI's Sora
• Why it's surprising: Disney and Universal sued Midjourney in June over AI videos using studio characters
• Disney's stance now: they are talking with AI companies and aiming to safeguard their franchises while rolling this out
• Timeline: no launch window yet

So, yes, Disney wants the energy of fan-made, AI-powered shorts inside its own walled garden. The big open question is where they draw the line between playful remix and IP landmine. No date yet, but the direction is clear: Disney+ is moving from a streaming app to a playground — with a lot of lawyers watching the monkey bars.