Fact Check: Did Disney buy the rights to the Bible? Viral TikTok claim emerges online 

Recently, a claim arose on social media platforms that Disney was purchasing the rights to the Holy Bible. Users of X user are even sharing a TikTok video where influencer @claretas.voice stated how she recently read an article that “the Disney company was buying the rights to Bible, yep, the Bible!”

The TikToker claimed that Disney bought the holy book’s rights for a whopping 7.2 billion dollars, as per the article she read, and the move was made to “create and produce” a Bible series.

However, according to fan blog Pirates & Princesses, the claim is unfounded, and the article mentioned by the TikTok influencer was meant for parody.

---

Disney did not buy the Bible’s rights

TikTok content creator @claretas.voice not only said that she read an article saying Disney purchased the rights to the Bible for billions of dollars but also that the company bought the holy book’s NIV and RSV versions.

“You’ll never guess what happened next. Matthew 17:21 was completely deleted from both versions. ‘Look, but this kind of demon does not go out except by prayer and fasting’ - it’s not there. It literally skips from 20 to 22 in both versions,” she claimed.

The TikToker further said it was vital to study Matthew 17:21 as “if they take it away, you need to know what it says.” She also warned people that if the entertainment company plans to “change it,” they must know what it meant.

She concluded,

“Jesus is soon to return and you need to be ready.”

Unfortunately, despite her claims, no mainstream media outlet has so far published the news, thus proving it is fabricated. Moreover, the Bible is not copyrighted or part of the public domain. Hence, Disney can make a Bible-based movie without owning its rights, at any given time, without having to buy its rights, as reported by Spiel Times.

However, it is essential to note that several versions of the Bible have their commercial rights owned by various sources. For instance, the NIV version is owned by Zondervan or Harper Collins on the North American continent. Meanwhile, the King James version belongs to The Crown, a firm owned by the British Royal Family, as reported by Pirates & Princesses.

The media source also clarified that this is not the first time Disney buying Bible’s rights claim has surfaced. In 2015, an article on The Return of the Modern Philosopher website claimed that the Mickey Mouse owners would “reboot the Bible” and chose JK Rowling to write the sequel.

The satire article further noted that the company planned to add a third testament to the existing Old and New and turn the whole into a “trilogy of Summer Blockbuster films.”

In 2018, the parody site Babylon Bee reiterated the claim, which alleged that Disney would create 37 spinoffs of the Holy Bible and bought its rights for $7 billion from an unnamed author. Plots such as God Creating the universe, to biblically inspired titles like Shamgar: A Judges Story, Rise of Habakkuk, Song of Solomon 2: Gaza Heat, and Dirty Job (a sequel to the Book of Job, reportedly starring Mike Rowe) were included in the article.

Additionally, Babylon Bee proclaimed that the company would make the Bible modern and diverse by renaming King David into Lady David and including robots in the Moses story. Themes like dystopia, cyberpunk, time travel, aliens, and zombies were also included, and titles like “The Christ Awakens” did the rounds.

All the claims are fake, and so far, there is no confirmed news of Disney buying the Bible. However, Disney Fanatic reports that the re-emergence of the rumor may be because the company is creating a series titled Pauline, which follows the story of a young woman being impregnated by the Devil and has garnered backlash ever since its announcements.