Disney Is Getting in on AI Slop

During an earnings call with shareholders today, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the company’s streaming platform, Disney+, is preparing to expand with new elements—including ways for subscribers to share and create Disney-themed content with generative AI.

“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,†Iger told shareholders (via the Hollywood Reporter), “including the ability for them to create user-generated content and to consume user-generated content—mostly short-form—from others.â€

According to the CEO, Disney+ will also soon include new gamified experiences as part of the studio’s partnership with Epic Games, which so far has mostly existed as a series of Disney collaborations for Fortnite, including seasons based on Star Wars and The Simpsons. The Star Wars season of Fortnite infamously introduced an AI-voiced Darth Vader companion, who had to be promptly updated when players immediately started getting the generated voice of the late James Earl Jones to use slurs.

Iger described the additions as “the biggest and the most significant changes—from a product perspective, from a technology perspective—since we launched the service in 2019.â€

Externally, Disney, like other Hollywood studios, has been openly bullish about the rise of generative AI, joining lawsuits alongside other studios such as Universal and Warner Bros. to sue AI companies like Midjourney and MiniMax, arguing that their generative AI platforms are infringing on their copyrighted works by allowing users to create images of popular characters. But internally, beyond this new development, we’ve known for a while that Disney has been exploring the use of generative AI in its productions.

A report from the Wall Street Journal in August this year alleged that Disney executives had attempted to pitch the use of generative AI systems on two of its projects, the live-action Moana remake and the then-upcoming Tron: Ares, only to find that the technology’s use was stymied and ultimately dropped from both films out of a combination of concerns about Disney’s copyrights and potential public backlash.

Disney seems to have started trying to figure out its concerns about the former. In today’s call, Iger said that the studio had had “productive conversations†with AI companies (which ones, exactly, Iger did not disclose) before noting he was hopeful those conversations could result in a deal that would “reflect our need to protect the IP.†What Disney has yet to figure out is the latter concern of the public.

Disney subsidiary Marvel Studios has already found itself facing blowback to the use of generative AI technology in the past, first in 2023, when the studio was lambasted for the opening credits of the Samuel Jackson MCU vehicle Secret Invasion, which were created with AI imagery. Earlier this year, Marvel had to defend itself from backlash alleging that a series of posters for The Fantastic Four: First Steps featured signs indicating the use of generative AI.

The move to test that public reaction comes at a time when Disney has found public confidence in the studio damaged—in part due to liberal concerns over the company’s ongoing capitulations to the second Trump administration, and more pointedly recently when the studio faced a series of public boycotts over its decision to temporarily suspend late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over commentary he made on the death of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.

Will the ability to make uncanny short videos of Grogu and Spider-Man be enough? Disney seemingly intends to find out.

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