Epic goes 'AI first' on its Disney game: 'No more hand-written code', all art 'generated with full AI'

Bloomberg reports Epic told the team on its unannounced Star Wars and Marvel shooter to go 'AI first', with art from AI tools. It rests on one director's message, and Disney has not commented.

Some time last week, a director on Epic Games' unannounced Star Wars and Marvel shooter told the team there would be "no more hand-written code." According to people familiar with the project who spoke to Bloomberg, the game's art is now meant to come from AI tools, with people guiding what comes out. The game had been due in March and has no new date.

The Disney part is the story for anyone making film. Disney took a $1.5 billion stake in Epic in 2024 and granted this license, and it is suing Midjourney over images of the same characters made by the public. In August its chief executive Josh D'Amaro called the company's AI work "human-centered, artist-driven, and creator-led." This is the first public test of that line on a flagship property, and Disney has not commented.

Everything traces to one Bloomberg report and one director's message relayed by unnamed sources. Nobody outside the team knows whether it means the finished art players will see or early sketches, which tools make it, or whether Disney signed off. Tim Sweeney, Epic's chief executive, posted about "a huge pivot" toward AI 24 minutes before the report went live, without mentioning Disney.

In practice, AI on the biggest characters is arriving licensed and in-house, while the same characters made outside a license end up in court. For independent AI filmmakers, the open lane is original stories rather than fan work.

Source: Bloomberg, Tim Sweeney on X, Business Insider, Oct 12, 2026.