Selected creators will be allowed to use official assets from some of Hollywood’s biggest franchises as the entertainment giant expands its short-form video strategy.
Disney has struck a landmark deal with TikTok that will let selected creators legally use its famous characters, scenes and other assets in their videos – bringing everything from Star Wars and Toy Story to the Marvel universe into a new era of officially sanctioned fan content.
The entertainment giant and TikTok announced the global short-form content-sharing partnership this week, with a pilot programme launching in the United States in the coming months before expanding internationally.
Participating creators will gain access to assets from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and FX, while selected videos will appear both on TikTok and inside Verts, the vertical-video feed within Disney+.
Disney chief marketing and brand officer Asad Ayaz said: “Today, fans are celebrating our stories in entirely new ways.”
The deal gives creators formal access to intellectual property from one of Hollywood’s biggest collections of films, television programmes and characters, while Disney will be able to select TikTok videos for distribution through its own streaming service.
Neither Disney nor TikTok disclosed the financial terms of the agreement.
The partnership follows the collapse earlier this year of Disney’s proposed $1 billion (£745 million) agreement with OpenAI, which had been intended to allow users to generate short videos featuring more than 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars through the Sora artificial intelligence platform.
That agreement was abandoned in March after OpenAI announced it was shutting down Sora and shifting its resources towards other parts of its business.
The original OpenAI agreement would have included characters such as Mickey Mouse and Cinderella and was also expected to result in selected AI-generated videos appearing on Disney+.
Disney’s new TikTok arrangement instead places online creators and fan-made videos at the centre of its short-form strategy.
Social media consultant Matt Navarra told BBC News: “Disney owns some of the world’s biggest franchises but ownership of attention is shifting towards creators.
“Hollywood used to market at fans – now it needs to give fans the raw materials to market with it, and that is quite a profound shift.”
TikTok said an average of 6.5 million posts relating to film and television were uploaded to its platform each day last year.
Fans have long incorporated scenes, characters and other material from films and television programmes into TikTok videos, but unauthorised use can result in content being removed following copyright claims.
The new arrangement will provide participating creators with approved Disney assets and additional benefits, including increased visibility and access to exclusive events.
Matt said TikTok would also gain the “credibility of becoming a formal distribution partner to one of Hollywood’s biggest studios”.
He added TikTok’s recommendation algorithm gives the platform the ability to “influence which character or scene or forgotten franchise suddenly becomes very valuable again”.
Disney’s catalogue includes some of entertainment’s most recognisable properties.
Its own animated characters include Mickey Mouse and a century of Disney films, while Pixar has produced titles including Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles.
Disney also controls Lucasfilm’s Star Wars franchise and Marvel, whose Marvel Cinematic Universe has included characters including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and the Avengers.
The company additionally owns FX, whose television output includes The Bear.
Gareth Sutcliffe, an analyst at Enders Analysis, told BBC News: “This is a deal that repositions and recovers Disney in the UGC [user-generated content] space following the content gap left by the sudden collapse of Sora.”
He added the arrangement also presented challenges.
Gareth said: “There is an ongoing safety debate around TikTok under European online rules.
“At a minimum, Disney will need to employ significant guardrails to curate the creator content that is selected.”
The deal comes as online creators and influencers play an increasingly significant role in the advertising and entertainment industries.
Research by Oxford Economics found that YouTube creators contributed £2.2 billion to the UK economy in 2024 and supported 45,000 jobs, while brands have increasingly worked with smaller creators whose audiences can be concentrated around particular subjects.
Disney launched Verts in the United States in March as part of Disney+, offering subscribers a feed of short, vertically formatted videos designed for mobile viewing.
The TikTok agreement will bring selected creator videos directly into that service, making it the first time TikTok content has been formally distributed through another entertainment platform.
The partnership follows Disney’s abandoned OpenAI arrangement, under which the company had planned to make a $1bn equity investment and become a major OpenAI customer while licensing characters from Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars for Sora.
Disney said after OpenAI’s decision to discontinue Sora that it respected the company’s decision to leave the video-generation business and would continue looking for other ways to use new technology while protecting intellectual property and creators’ rights.
The TikTok pilot will begin in the US before being expanded to other markets, with Disney and TikTok selecting participating creators and determining which videos will also appear through Verts on Disney+.
Disney hands TikTok creators keys to Star Wars and Marvel in landmark deal
