Disney in Talks to License Characters for AI-Generated Streaming Platform ‘Showrunner’ – Fans Already Hate It

Fable, a San Francisco startup led by Edward Saatchi, has officially launched Showrunner, a new AI-powered streaming platform that lets anyone create animated TV shows using simple text prompts.

The service is now open to the public after months of private testing and support from some big names, including Amazon, which has invested in the company.

The exact amount of Amazon’s investment wasn’t revealed, but the money is going toward building out Showrunner, which Fable describes as “the Netflix of AI.” The idea is simple: users can type in a few words and generate animated scenes or full episodes from scratch or by using shared story-worlds created by others.

Right now, the service is free to try, but Fable plans to introduce paid options later. According to Saatchi, creators will eventually be able to pay around $10–$20 a month for credits that allow them to make hundreds of TV scenes. Watching the AI-generated content will stay free, and users can share their shows on platforms like YouTube.

Saatchi believes this is more than just a new way to make content—it’s a new kind of entertainment. He sees AI shows as something closer to video games than traditional film or TV.

“Using AI purely as a VFX tool is a little sad,” Saatchi said. “The ‘Toy Story of AI’ isn’t just going to be a cheap Toy Story. Our idea is that the ‘Toy Story of AI’ would be playable, with millions of new scenes, all owned by Disney.”

Yes, Disney might get involved too. Fable is currently in talks with Disney and other major studios about licensing their characters and worlds for use on Showrunner. Saatchi imagines a future where fans don’t just watch their favorite shows—they create new episodes with themselves in the story.

“Hollywood streaming services are about to become two-way entertainment,” he said. “Audiences watching a season of a show [and] loving it will now be able to make new episodes with a few words and become characters with a photo.”

Still, he admits the concept might not catch on right away.

“Maybe nobody wants this and it won’t work,” Saatchi added.

This isn’t his first time betting on emerging tech. Back in 2014, Saatchi co-founded Oculus Story Studios, which was part of the virtual reality boom when Facebook (now Meta) bought Oculus for $2 billion. That team made several VR experiences, including the Emmy-winning Henry, but VR storytelling didn’t take off the way they hoped. Meta shut down the studio in 2017, and Saatchi later formed Fable Studio, eventually pivoting from VR to AI-generated stories.

Showrunner currently includes two original animated shows for users to experiment with. One is Exit Valley, a comedy that spoofs tech leaders like Elon Musk and Sam Altman. The other is Everything Is Fine, a surreal story about a couple who argue in Ikea and are thrown into a strange alternate world.

Users can also put themselves into shows, a feature that surprised even Fable’s team.

“People are interested in putting themselves and their friends into these stories,” Saatchi said. “That was a surprise. We didn’t design it with that in mind. People want to be in fictional worlds and also want to tell stories about themselves.”

The platform runs on Fable’s own AI model, called SHOW-2. A year ago, the company released a research paper on its earlier model, SHOW-1, which gained attention for generating nine episodes of South Park without official permission. Those videos got over 80 million views. Saatchi said the team behind South Park was contacted and reassured that their IP wasn’t being used commercially.

Jacob Madden, Fable’s head of technology and co-creator of Showrunner, said the platform is about more than just automation.

“It has been incredibly exciting to see how Showrunner ignites creativity in people,” Madden said. “The platform allows showrunners to experiment with their stories in real-time, constantly iterating and refining their vision.”

But AI storytelling still has limits. According to Saatchi, the tech is best suited for short, episodic content like sitcoms or space adventures—formats where characters reset each episode. Long, complex story arcs like Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad are still out of reach.

“Today AI can’t sustain a story beyond one episode,” he said.

Fable also claims it has guardrails in place to avoid legal and ethical problems. That includes content filters and protections against copyright issues. This comes as studios like Disney and NBCUniversal are starting to take legal action against AI-generated content that uses their properties without permission.

Right now, Showrunner is focused on animation because it’s much easier and cheaper to generate than realistic live-action video. Fable says it’s staying out of the race between companies like Google, Meta, and OpenAI, who are all working on ultra-realistic video AI.

“If you’re competing with Google, are you going to win?” Saatchi said. “Our goal is to have the most creative models.”

All of this sounds good on paper but fans already don’t like the idea and they turned to social media to voice their disgust:

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