Antoine Fuqua’s Michael continues to generate buzz and spark various conversations. The Michael Jackson biopic -- in which his nephew, Jafaar, plays him -- is a box office hit, but it’s also received its share of criticisms from film pundits. Various critics have noted that Michael glosses over certain aspects of Jackson’s life. It’s been reported that some legal stipulations account for some of those key omissions. Now, several insiders are dropping claims about other variables that have supposedly factored into certain details not being explored.
Michael was made in collaboration with Jackson’s estate but, per Rob Shuter’s substack, other people with close ties to the late “Billie Jean” performer impacted the creative process. One insider claimed to Shuter that Katherine Jackson – Michael’s mother and the family’s matriarch – had a level of influence as did two of Michael’s kids, Paris and Bigi (formerly Blanket). If this report is to be believed, Katherine and the kids put forth a lot of effort to protect Michael’s legacy:
That was intentional. The movie avoids the ugliest chapters because Katherine and the children still have influence and control. Nobody wants a war with them.
One of the biggest points of contention with this entry on the 2026 movie schedule is the absence of any reference to the child sexual abuse allegations Jackson faced in the ‘90s. That situation was, however, originally meant to be addressed in the film via the original prologue and epilogue. Yet the estate later discovered a legal clause that prevented the case involving then-13-year-old Jordan Chandler from being mentioned. With that, the original ending was deemed “unusable” and had to be reshot for a $10-$15 million price tag.
As it stands, Michael has earned over $580 million, and execs are already teasing a follow-up, given the film ends with the Bad tour in 1988. With the prospect of a sequel comes the question of how much such a project would highlight the issues Jackson had later in life. There would surely be red tape to consider, and another one of Shuter’s sources alleges that several members of the Jackson family would allow such if film (if they were able and the price was right):
If Katherine and the kids were no longer standing in the way, there are family members who would absolutely participate in a second movie that told everything. And the full story is not pretty.
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No members of the Jackson family nor any of their representatives have corroborated such claims, so they should be taken with a serious grain of salt. Meanwhile the debates on Michael’s merits are drawing responses from those who knew the late Grammy winner. After critics argued that Fuqua’s film provided a surface-level examination of the singer, his nephew, Taj, called out the media and claimed it could “control the narrative” regarding his uncle’s legacy. A friend of Michael’s, Spike Lee, also chastised critics for supposedly harping on the absence of the sexual assault allegations.
As for a Michael sequel, there’s been no official indication on Lionsgate’s part that one officially has the green light. Should that happen, it can’t be said with certainty whether it would truly spark any kind of drama amongst the Jackson family. In the meantime, audiences can still check out the existing biopic in theaters now.
