Disney Plus Signs Deal to Add TikTok Videos Following Show Cancellations

As streaming services compete with social media, Disney announced a new deal with TikTok to bring user-created content to Disney Plus. Through the new Verts feature on the mobile app, select Disney-themed TikToks from participating creators will appear on the platform. These videos feature characters and stories from Disney brands including Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and FX.

TikTok gains access to assets related to Disney films and series, while Disney Plus receives a feed of related TikTok videos. The press release states that the move aims to engage subscribers more deeply in timely fan conversations, build stronger communities, and help audiences interact with more story formats across Disney Plus.

“The best storytellers are fans first,” said Asad Ayaz, chief marketing and brand officer at The Walt Disney Company. “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, giving creators a bigger stage to share what they’ve made, and audiences more to discover on Disney Plus every day.”

TikTok creators participate through the Disney Creator Ambassador Program. The program offers special rewards, increased visibility, access to exclusive events, and career development pathways. Disney cited internal TikTok data showing that fans shared an average of 6.5 million film- and TV-related posts on TikTok each day last year. Furthermore, nearly half of surveyed viewers said they watched a movie or TV show after discovering it on TikTok.

The timing of the announcement follows the cancellation of the Emmy-nominated Wonder Man. Despite previously green-lighting a second season, Disney canceled the show. Showrunner Andrew Guest stated that scheduling issues are not to blame, attributing the decision to Disney and Marvel Studios’ current plan for the MCU.

“Yahya, Destin, Sir Ben, and I all loved making this show, all felt passionately about continuing to do it, and were eager to,” Guest explained. “Contracts were signed. Schedules were cleared. The writers’ room was supposed to start this week. The production was supposed to begin early next year, and there was a decision made internally between Disney and Marvel that this didn’t make sense for them, even though a few months ago it did.”

TikTok remains a subject of debate due to concerns that the Chinese government could access user data through parent company ByteDance. Following threats of a TikTok ban, the Trump administration reached a deal allowing the company to operate in the United States. Since then, TikTok users have claimed that they were censored when posting videos that criticized Trump and his allies.

Disney’s TikTok partnership follows a previously planned partnership with OpenAI’s Sora. That AI video-generation tool was shut down due to cost inefficiencies.

Source: Polygon