Can WWE Attract More Male Viewers to Microdramas?

ReelShort brings wrestling stars to vertical drama to expand its audience | Streaming in Short - W29

Jul 17, 2026

⏱️ This week’s streaming news in MENA and around the world, in 5 min.

🆕 MICRODRAMAS: WWE is partnering with ReelShort on an original live-action vertical drama featuring wrestlers including Drew McIntyre, Joe Hendry and Jacob Fatu alongside established microdrama stars. More in The Lab’s Pick.

🤖 AI: Netflix says generative AI workflows have already been used across around 300 movies and series, mainly to reduce costs and speed up post-production. More in my Analysis section.

🤖 AI: Animaj has partnered with Disney Jr to launch Ozzy Fox, a first preschool series developed specifically for YouTube and YouTube Kids. More in my Analysis section.

📺 FAST: VIDAA has added eight WATCH IT streaming channels across MENA, bringing more Arabic series, classics, originals, kids’ content and nostalgia directly to its Smart TV platform.

📱 CREATORS: Céline Dept and IShowSpeed emerged as major winners of the 2026 World Cup, generating hundreds of millions of views and showing how football creators are increasingly competing with traditional sports media.

📊 AUDIENCE: Netflix users watched 97.7 billion hours of content in the first half of 2026, up 2% year over year, as the streamer prepares to move from semiannual to annual engagement reports.

🤖 AI: Promise AI has recruited creatives behind Doctor Who, Sharknado and Predator: Killer of Killers to work alongside AI-native filmmakers on a new slate of original films and series.

🤖 AI: Christopher Nolan says young audiences are quickly rejecting “AI slop” and showing renewed interest in more authentic, tactile filmmaking, pointing to the success of Obsession and Backrooms.

WWE steps into microdramas with ReelShort

What happened?

👉 WWE is partnering with ReelShort to produce an original live-action microdrama featuring professional wrestlers alongside established vertical drama stars.

Key details:

The series will feature WWE stars Drew McIntyre, Joe Hendry and Jacob Fatu, with more wrestlers expected to join the cast.
They will appear alongside popular microdrama actors Marc Herrmann and Chase Mattson.
Filming is scheduled to begin in August, with the series expected to premiere this fall.

Why it matters?

🎯 For ReelShort, it could help attract more male viewers to a category currently dominated by female audiences. It also shows how microdramas are becoming a new way for entertainment brands to expand their IP and reach new audiences.

Netflix has already used generative AI across 300 productions

👉 Netflix says generative AI workflows have now been used across around 300 movies and series, mainly to support post-production and create complex visual effects more quickly and efficiently.

📍 Use cases include enhancing crowds and historical battle scenes, as well as producing shots that may previously have been too expensive. Netflix says its documentary series The American Experiment includes 17 minutes of AI-enhanced footage, produced twice as fast and at half the cost of traditional methods.

💡 AI is becoming part of the production process at scale, helping the company reinvest savings into more content while continuing to increase its annual content budget.

Animaj partners with Disney Jr to launch its first YouTube-native preschool series

👉 AI animation studio Animaj has partnered with Disney Jr to launch Ozzy Fox, a preschool series developed specifically for YouTube and YouTube Kids.

📍 Created by Peg + Cat’s Jennifer Oxley and developed by Pocoyo’s Guillermo García-Carsí, the series follows a five-year-old fox and his family as they turn everyday moments into adventures through music, imagination and play. The first two episodes are now available.

💡 The partnership gives Animaj the opportunity to bring its AI-driven production model to one of the world’s biggest children’s entertainment brands. It also shows how Disney is developing digital-first franchises designed for platforms where young audiences already spend time.

🎥 Save the date: SME Live 2026 | September 10

Taking place in Amsterdam the day before IBC, SME Live will bring together 200 media executives for candid conversations around its theme, The Long Game. Discussions will explore the future of European content investment, fandom, AI and talent, sustainable distribution models and ownership of the audience relationship.

🤖 The Ghost in the Shell (Prime Video, 10 episodes): 2029, a near-future Japan. The full cyborg Motoko Kusanagi envisions a task force that preemptively strikes emerging threats. She and her team are scouted by Daisuke Aramaki as Public Security Section 9, AKA the “Shell Squad.” An international conspiracy hints at a hacker known as The “Puppet Master.” What fate awaits Kusanagi? What is the hacker’s endgame? A new era of cyberpunk action begins!

🤖 Ghost in the Shell, from Mamoru Oshii (1995 anime film): In a future where humans can enhance their bodies with cybernetic technology, Major Motoko Kusanagi leads an elite security unit investigating a mysterious hacker known as the Puppet Master. As the case unfolds, she begins questioning her own identity, consciousness and what it truly means to be human in a world where the line between people and machines is disappearing.