Disney+ Accused of Using AI for The Muppet Show

February 9, 2026, 8:00am

The revival of The Muppet Show on Disney+ was initially celebrated as a significant homecoming for a franchise that has long served as the gold standard for handmade entertainment. Historically, the Muppets have functioned as a defiant celebration of the tactile arts, relying on the intricate craft of physical puppetry and practical set design to create a sense of whimsical reality that digital effects struggle to replicate. However, the TV special is now facing intense scrutiny for the suspected use of generative artificial intelligence in its official marketing materials, which is a fundamental betrayal of the brand’s handmade legacy.

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UPDATE (02/10/2026, 12:22 ET): After our story got published, Disney removed the AI image from its platforms. The original story continues below.

A detailed investigation first shared on X by the Kermitment Muppets podcast has highlighted several glaring visual discrepancies that suggest Disney utilized generative tools to expand the series’ promotional artwork. The report focuses on significant inconsistencies between the standard widescreen banner for the new The Muppet Show and the extended vertical version currently displayed on various digital interfaces.

Here's a story about Disney, AI, & The Muppets.

We love to see The Muppets being promoted right at the top of Disney+. Disney using their immense promotional power to push the Muppets is exactly what we want.

But wait… zoom in… is that is a gloveless Miss Piggy? pic.twitter.com/FHZap38cnm
— Kermitment – A Muppets Podcast (@KermitmentPod) February 8, 2026

According to the findings, the vertical image appears to have been “outpainted” using AI to fill empty space that was never accounted for in the original composition, resulting in several errors. These discrepancies include characters appearing with missing or distorted limbs and unnatural shifts in the physical texture of their felt and clothing. Most notably, the artwork depicts Miss Piggy (Eric Jacobson) with gloveless hands, a major continuity error that contradicts the character’s established design language throughout the entire history of the franchise. Taken together, these technical artifacts serve as primary evidence for the claim that the studio utilized Gen-AI technology to stretch the image beyond its initial constraints.

Jim Henson and The Muppets — Image courtesy of The Jim Henson Company

The tension regarding The Muppet Show‘s marketing reflects a broader conflict between the global artistic community and the rapid implementation of generative AI. For most creators, the adoption of these tools represents an ethical crisis, as the underlying datasets for Gen-AI were often constructed by scraping the intellectual property of independent artists without their consent or compensation. In addition, massive corporations are further consolidating their wealth at the expense of professional labor, as billionaires bet on automated tools to replace the specialized roles of human graphic designers and illustrators. Beyond the immediate ethical concerns of how Gen-AI tools were built, these probability-based machines are also systems built to deliver the most statistically likely outcome rather than a unique creative vision. Because Gen-AI functions by averaging existing data points to satisfy a prompt, it is inherently limited to imitation, lacking the capacity for genuine self-expression that serves as the foundation of meaningful art.

Disney’s decision to embrace Gen-AI is particularly jarring. The company recently announced a landmark partnership with OpenAI to integrate generative technology across its various production arms, a move intended to increase profit margins through automation. While Disney has defended these initiatives as a necessary evolution for the digital age, applying such methods to the Muppets feels like a fundamental betrayal of the brand. The Muppet Show has always positioned itself as a bastion of the puppetry craft, where the slight imperfections of a puppet or the visible texture of a costume are celebrated as marks of human effort. Seeing these characters subjected to the error-prone distortions of an AI generator creates a profound disconnect for a fanbase that values the franchise specifically for its rejection of the digital.

The Muppet Show is currently streaming on Disney+.

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