What This Lion King Director Thinks About AI Storytelling & How Hollywood Can Adapt - Rob Minkoff

Mar 3, 2026

Rob Minkoff, director of The Lion King and family films like Stuart Little, talks about Hollywood’s streaming shakeup and what consolidation means for creators. He weighs AI tools as both threat and lifeline for filmmaking. The conversation focuses on whether AI will flood the market with short-form “slop” and if true, singular voices will still rise above the average.

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INSIGHT

Streaming Consolidation Shrinks Creators’ Leverage

Streaming consolidation reduces the number of buyers and strengthens platforms' negotiating power with creators.
Rob Minkoff observed fewer buyers after Netflix's deal shift, meaning directors and writers face tougher markets and less leverage.

ANECDOTE

Netflix Ate Hollywood By Doing Streaming Better

Rob described visiting Netflix and other studios and concluded Netflix 'ate Hollywood' by executing streaming better than legacy studios.
He recounted being impressed at Netflix's energy and execution compared with Paramount and Disney visits.

INSIGHT

AI Raises The Average But The Cream Still Rises

AI tools will raise the average quality of media but won't replace distinctive human voices that break through.
Minkoff argued the mean quality rises yet audiences will still seek the one-in-a-thousand creators with fresh perspective.

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What does a Lion King–level director really think about AI “slop,” streaming wars and whether machines can ever tell great stories? On this episode of the AI XR Podcast, Charlie Fink and Ted Schilowitz talk with Rob Minkoff, director of The Lion King, Stuart Little, The Haunted Mansion, Forbidden Kingdom and Paws of Fury, about the future of filmmaking as AI, streaming consolidation and new tools reshape the business.

Rob shares how he watched Netflix “eat Hollywood” by doing streaming better than the legacy studios, why Netflix walking away from Warner Bros. and letting Paramount overpay is bad news for creators, and what fewer buyers means for directors and writers trying to sell original work. He explains why he sees AI tools like Seed Dance as potentially both iceberg and Noah’s Ark, and why he believes the average will rise but the cream will still rise higher: tools may let anyone make competent images, but audiences will still chase the one-in-a-thousand voices that have something genuinely new and human to say.

In XR News You Should Know, the host cover Anthropic’s standoff with the Pentagon over using large, unstable models for high-stakes military decisions, Netflix walking away from a Warner Bros. deal and collecting a breakup fee while Paramount overpays, streaming brand confusion around HBO/Max and Paramount+, VITURE’s new raise and its patent fight with XREAL over “birdbath” smart-glasses optics, and Google’s Gemini gaining multi-step action capabilities on Samsung and Pixel phones before Apple’s Siri catches up.

The conversation digs into whether AI will really make feature films cheaper and more common, or just flood social feeds with short-form “AI slop.” Rob compares AI tools to word processors and home recording studios: they are powerful, but they don’t turn you into Bruce Springsteen or Steven Spielberg. He argues that empathy, taste and genuinely fresh perspective will remain the differentiators, and that audiences will quickly tune out work that feels derivative, even if it looks slick. He also raises a bigger question: if AI drives productivity to the point where work is optional for many people, what happens to purpose, competition and the human psyche?

Key Moments

01:16 – Anthropic vs. the Pentagon and why unstable AI systems may never meet military safety standards
02:42 – Netflix exits the Warner Bros. deal, collects a breakup fee and leaves Paramount holding the bag
05:31 – HBO, Max, Paramount+ branding confusion and what happens to these streaming labels
06:00 – VITURE’s $100M raise, XREAL patent lawsuits and the simple science behind “birdbath” smart glasses
07:31 – Why Miami is becoming a new tech and defense hub and what that signals about America’s “neighborhood”
10:00 – Seed Dance 2.0, Hollywood’s deepfake panic and the “ship first, apologize later” strategy
15:16 – Rob joins: 34 years in film, Netflix “eating Hollywood” and what consolidation means for creators
19:18 – Seed Dance, stolen IP and whether AI tools are an iceberg or Noah’s Ark for filmmakers
24:39 – Can AI become a true “prophet,” or can it only emulate empathy and taste?
30:57 – Will AI make many more animated movies or just flood the world with average content?
37:32 – If AI does most of the work, what’s left for humans—and can entertainment absorb all that free time?

This episode is a grounded, filmmaker’s view of where AI fits: powerful tools, real risks, but no substitute for a human vision that cuts through the noise. Rob’s perspective is invaluable if you’re trying to understand what will actually matter in a world where everyone can generate “good enough” images on demand.

This episode is brought to you by Zappar, creators of Mattercraft, the leading visual development environment for building immersive 3D web experiences for mobile, headsets and desktop. To explore what’s possible with AI-powered XR on the web, start building smarter with Mattercraft from Zappar at Mattercraft.io.

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