Midjourney's V1 Video Model Launch Amid Disney Lawsuit

Midjourney has launched its new V1 Video model, letting users animate images into short video clips up to 20 seconds. It’s available now through its web and Discord platform, and it’s priced affordably-roughly the cost of one image per second of video. But the launch comes amid a heavyweight lawsuit from Disney and Universal over “visual plagiarism.”

What Midjourney Is Saying

Midjourney is positioning V1 as an early but meaningful step toward accessible AI-generated video. The team makes it clear that this is not a polished, final product. Instead, it’s a creative playground - designed for users to add simple motion to still images and experiment with short-form animation. They’ve also highlighted affordability, claiming V1 offers a much lower cost than most video-generation tools currently on the market.

CEO David Holz summed it up like this:

“The inevitable destination of this technology are models capable of real-time open-world simulations.”

🧠 What That Means (In Human Words)

You can now drop in an image and turn it into a video.
You can also type a prompt and get a video instead of a still.

The video is short - a few seconds - and includes simple motion like zoom, pan, or a loop.

What can you do with it?

✅ Make content for TikTok or Instagram
✅ Build motion mood boards
✅ Show a client how your idea moves
✅ Create a video prompt for your next project

It’s quick, it’s built in, and it saves time.

Connecting the dots 

Here is quite simple and it has everything to do with a lawsuit.

🎯 The Disney + Universal Lawsuit: What’s Actually Happening?

Disney and Universal have taken Midjourney to court-this time with full force. Their 110-page complaint, filed on June 11 in Los Angeles, accuses Midjourney of operating a “bottomless pit of plagiarism” by enabling users to generate unauthorized images and videos of their iconic characters-Elsa, Darth Vader, the Minions, and more.

This is not a broad lawsuit against all AI video tools. It’s focused squarely on Midjourney-and its upcoming video capabilities.

They’re pushing for:

• A preliminary injunction to halt infringing image and video generation

• Unspecified damages

• Stronger content filters and protections

🧩 Why?

• Scale of infringement: Studios argue Midjourney used their content en masse to train its platform-without permission

• Video brings new risk: The fact that Midjourney recently launched a video model makes their claim stricter-movies and animations are seen as even more sensitive .

• Legal ramifications: A win for Disney could mean stricter requirements for copyright-safe training and content filtering-and it would set a precedent for how AI creators handle media data globally.

Disney and Universal are drawing a line-they want AI firms to play by the same rules Hollywood does, especially when it comes to characters. The implications? If this goes Disney’s way, every AI company that builds on existing media-or enables users to generate that media-will need new guardrails.

🛡️ Midjourney’s Defence

Midjourney hasn’t published an official legal response yet, but their public positioning shows signs of a carefully drawn line between inspiration and imitation.

Their broader defence strategy seems to focus on:

• User responsibility: Midjourney says users create the content, not the company.

• Prompt filtering: They’ve implemented new safety systems that attempt to block prompts tied to copyrighted names or characters.

• Training ambiguity: Midjourney, like many generative AI companies, hasn’t disclosed its exact training dataset. This creates legal grey space, especially when it comes to public images online.

From what we can tell, Midjourney is trying to hold a middle ground: we’re not encouraging copyright abuse, but we’re also not admitting fault. And now that video generation is entering the mix, the pressure to take a public legal stance is only rising.

🔄 Common Reports of V1 Video Freezing or Failing

🚫 Creation Failures

A Reddit user reports frequent 🛑 "creation failed" errors despite multiple attempts:

“I keep getting ‘creation failed’ when I try and make videos… I have only managed to make 1 video, the rest is failing…”
- from r/midjourney

That thread shows this failure isn’t isolated-it’s a recurring problem for some users starting new video generations.

🔄 Generation Freezes During Extend

We’ve already seen reports about extend failures:

“Video generation is working great, but when I try to manually extend a video… it gets stuck in Submitting and nothing happens.”
- pepfre on r/midjourney

This suggests an issue both at job start and when adding extra seconds.

🌀 Refresh Trick Acknowledged

Multiple users note refreshing often "resolves" the issue-but it’s clearly just a workaround, not a fix:

“Devs are aware. Sometimes refreshing the page will ‘fix’ it…”
- from r/midjourney 

🧭 Summary Table

Yes-there are multiple reports beyond just "stuck extends." Users are seeing errors when starting new video jobs, freeze-ups during extensions, and relying on refreshes. These aren’t rare complaints-they're real issues currently affecting V1 Video users.

🔁 Closing the Loop

All the friction users are experiencing right now - video generation freezing, “creation failed” errors, and broken extends - might not just be bugs.

They might be the groundwork.

From the outside, it looks like Midjourney is starting to quietly build internal systems for prompt testing, filtering, and regulation response. Whether it’s preparing to stand in court or meet future copyright compliance head-on, this wave of new restrictions could be part of a legal defence strategy in disguise.

You don’t ship video, face a major Disney lawsuit, and keep moving like nothing happened. You close the loop.

And that’s what might be happening here: failures = pressure testing, prompt blocks = legal perimeter, and internal silence = courtroom prep.

“Devs are aware. Sometimes refreshing the page will ‘fix’ it…”
“I keep getting ‘creation failed’ when I try and make videos… I have only managed to make 1 video, the rest is failing…”

Whether Midjourney officially says it or not, this feels like a team preparing for the courtroom by testing its guardrails in public.

Compensation: Where We Stand at a Glance

There’s no official standard yet for how this should be measured - but we dug around, and guess what? It’s easy to see why Disney and Universal have their eyes on Midjourney.

🧾 Bottom Line

Availability: Midjourney V1 is currently in alpha. To try it, you need to be a paid Midjourney user.
Pricing: Starts at $10/month for Basic. Video features are available starting from the Pro plan ($60/month).
How to Use It:

• Go to https://www.midjourney.com/app

• Select the Video (Alpha) tab

• Upload an image or use a prompt

• Choose style and duration

• Hit render and wait for your clip to process

For more details, visit the official blog:
📖 https://www.midjourney.com/updates/introducing-our-v1-video-model

💡 From Thoughts to Prompts

Usually, when you break copyright, your AI will tell you - but only after you try.
And it can take a few frustrating attempts to get it right.

That’s why we’ve created a new prompt you can use before asking for an image.
It helps you avoid copyright issues from the start.

Copy this prompt and use it with your LLM:

“Please review the following image request and let me know if it includes anything that might infringe on copyright, trademark, or publicity rights - like brand names, real people, famous characters, or protected styles. If so, suggest a safer way to describe it.”

Let your AI help you do it right - before you generate anything.
And you’ll be helping the environment too - every unused image generated still consumes GPU power and wastes resources from our planet.

🧊 Stop the AI Cult - FrozenLight Perspective

We get it.

Midjourney wouldn’t be where it is today if it hadn’t trained on everything. And to be honest - neither would anyone else.

We also get why Disney and Universal are suing.
This is their art. Their legacy.
And if someone is making money off years of their hard work - they should get compensated.

We get that too.

We even get why Midjourney is trying to change things now.
If they really want to do something about it, they’ll need to update how the model works - and if they roll that out without any glitches? We’ll be shocked.
That kind of change takes time.

The only thing we don’t get?

Why no one’s talking about it.
Not out loud. Not clearly. Not with ownership.

Everyone seems to know what’s going on - but no one is really saying anything.

In our view, this is going to land in court.
And then in regulation.
That’s where the lines will get drawn.

We just hope it won’t take too long.
Because without real rules, nobody can move forward - not the platforms, not the artists, not the people trying to build real things.

And we do want to move forward. Together.