Disney was going to open its characters to AI; Sora shut down before the money arrived

On 14 November 2025, in EduMedia-IAG, a conversation about an AI-animated video clip turned to copyright. People said that Disney was going to allow content to be created with its characters, presumably for a fee, and ventured that once licences had to be paid for, free access to the models would come to an end.

On 11 December, Disney and OpenAI announced a three-year licensing agreement: more than 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars for Sora videos, a selection of them on Disney+, and a $1bn investment by Disney in OpenAI. The first videos were expected in early 2026.

Neither the deal nor the tool lasted the year. On 24 March 2026, OpenAI announced that Sora would be shut down: the app and the website stopped working on 26 April, according to The Decoder, and the API on 24 September, according to OpenAI’s deprecations page. Disney walked away from the deal and, according to Reuters, as reported by Campus Technology, no money had changed hands. Access was not closed because of licences: the tool was closed.