OpenAI’s Sora 2 generative video app has gone live, and immediately it’s been used to create countless videos featuring licensed characters, such as Mario, Pikachu and an array of other Pokémon.
While videos featuring Pikachu in Saving Private Ryan, or Mario in Star Wars, might look surprising, a statement from OpenAI earlier this week suggested the company knew exactly what people would be getting up to when Sora 2 arrived — and what the company’s own algorithms had apparently been trained on.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, OpenAI has already begun contacting movie studios and other intellectual property owners to discuss next steps — and offer them the chance to retroactively opt out of their fictional characters being available within Sora 2’s AI videos.
But, for now, it’s open season on Pikachu and his pals, as these initial results from Sora 2 demonstrate (thanks, Nintendo Life):
“The Dark Knight” pic.twitter.com/2Hk0vlJBKJ
— Justine Moore (@venturetwins) October 1, 2025
And finally – “The Titantic” starring Pikachu and Eevee pic.twitter.com/63HjZC9toy
— Justine Moore (@venturetwins) October 1, 2025
Ever wondered what Pikachu would sound like if he could actually chat away in human speech (and wasn’t secretly Ryan Reynolds)? Well, wonder no longer — though you may regret listening to this.
Entertainment time, best to hear Pokémon Pikachu complaining about Sora 2 😬 pic.twitter.com/WlFqqEnpoy
— Skyla Vtuber 幻萍 VTuber (@skyla_vtuber) October 2, 2025
While characters are fair game, OpenAI has previously said that real-life people, whether that’s users of the app or the those seeking to use the likeness of celebrities, will need to have manually opted in to having their appearances generated. Of course, OpenAI boss Sam Altman has allowed for his likeness to be used — so here he is having a lightsaber battle with Pikachu:
Pokemon don’t sue me 🥲 Sora 2 is insane pic.twitter.com/dInl6EysJl
— Pm Prod (@PMProdResearch) October 2, 2025
Alongside Pokémon, Nintendo’s own Mario characters have been getting plenty of use. And then there’s the final clip below, which mashes together Valve’s Portal and Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (and also Twin Peaks).
Sora 2 just broke the Internet yesterday.
Reimagine famous movies
100% AI parody
1. “Star Wars” but starring Mario & friends pic.twitter.com/t9QqOT8RnG
— Min Choi (@minchoi) October 2, 2025
This is my favorite Sora 2 generation I’ve made so far.
It can seamlessly combine the disparate gameplay elements of Portal and Tony Hawk Pro Skater and then slip in a Twin Peaks reference… and generate in 1.5 minutes.
Unreal. pic.twitter.com/C3XUEzgHsH— 🌟twinstar🌟 ଘ(✿˵•́ ᴗ •̀˵)੭🧁 (@1ketaminepatch) October 1, 2025
Is any of this legal? “In short, we don’t have a definitive answer yet,” business lawyer and creator of the Virtual Legality podcast Richard Hoeg told IGN today. “There are indications in some quarters that training on protected materials is likely going to be deemed legal so long as the materials themselves were acquired for some lawful purpose (and not pirated). But on the output side, the Disney/Dreamworks lawsuit makes some good arguments for why/how the law should expect these platforms to police prompts for infringing requests, especially if they are already policing for something else (porn, bigotry, etc.). But all of those are still just arguments, not settled law..
Hoeg continued: “The law moves slowly, far slower than technology, which is why you see these tech companies racing ahead of it a bit. My best guess is that OpenAI is probably going to be okay long term on the training sets they used (assuming they weren’t pirated), and that the ‘opt out of training’ option therefore won’t do much of anything. Where they really need to concern themselves is on the output side and/or if they are marketing their software’s abilities with protected content themselves.”
IGN has contacted Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for comment.
Last week, the famously litigious The Pokémon Company formally responded to the use of Pokémon TV hero Ash Ketchum and the series’ theme tune by the Department of Homeland Security, as part of a video showing people being arrested and handcuffed by law enforcement agents. “Our company was not involved in the creation or distribution of this content,” a spokesperson told IGN, “and permission was not granted for the use of our intellectual property.”
But while The Pokémon Company may not begin legal action over that usage, the firm is still keenly battling on against Palworld developer Pocketpair in its claim that the game infringed upon multiple patents. Earlier this week, former Capcom designer Yoshiki Okamoto sparked a backlash in Japan after suggesting that Pokémon and Nintendo’s legal action against Palworld was justified, since Pocketpair’s game had “crossed a line that should not be crossed.”
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
