Disney fans who make TikTok videos about their favorite movies and shows will soon see that work land somewhere new: inside Disney+ itself.
The Walt Disney Company and TikTok announced a global partnership Wednesday that will bring fan-created, short-form videos from TikTok into Verts, Disney+’s vertical video feed. Creators who opt in will get access to officially licensed clips and characters spanning Disney’s library — Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, FX and more — to build their videos, which will then live on both TikTok and Disney+. The deal will pilot in the U.S. in the coming months, with other markets expected to follow; financial terms weren’t disclosed.
It’s a notable move for TikTok as much as for Disney: according to industry reporting, this is the first time TikTok-created content will be distributed on any platform besides TikTok itself. For Disney+, it’s an expansion of Verts, which launched in March as a mobile-first, swipeable video feed but until now pulled exclusively from Disney’s own existing catalog.
“The best storytellers are fans first,” said Asad Ayaz, Disney’s chief marketing and brand officer. “That has always been true at Disney, and today, fans are celebrating our stories in entirely new ways. This collaboration creates a new bridge between the stories we tell and the creativity they inspire.” TikTok’s Dawn Yang, global head of entertainment, framed it as an extension of what already happens organically on the platform: “Creators are at the heart of everything we do at TikTok. Their creativity extends the life of films and shows into conversations that fans discover and share.”
Alongside the content-sharing piece, the companies are launching a jointly run Disney Creator Ambassador Program, offering top creators increased visibility, access to exclusive events and career development opportunities.
The timing is notable for another reason. Last December, Disney struck a three-year deal with OpenAI that would have let users generate short AI videos featuring more than 200 Disney characters through OpenAI’s Sora tool, paired with a planned $1 billion investment — with the idea that a curated selection would eventually land on Disney+. That partnership fizzled before a single video reached the app: OpenAI discontinued Sora in March, and Disney reportedly never completed the planned investment. Neither company has said whether AI-generated content will be allowed under the new TikTok arrangement.
Disney isn’t alone in chasing this format. Netflix, Peacock and Fox One have all rolled out their own vertical, swipeable video feeds in the past year and a half, as streamers compete directly with TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels for viewers’ attention — and, increasingly, for the free discovery and word-of-mouth marketing that social platforms already provide. TikTok itself points to the scale of that behavior: fans shared an average of 6.5 million film- and TV-related posts on the platform every day last year, and nearly half of surveyed viewers said they went on to watch something on a streaming service or TV after discovering it there.
