The road to Michael (2026), the long-anticipated biopic about controversial superstar Michael Jackson, has been nearly as dramatic as the life of its subject. A combination of external pressures and mishaps—from the involvement of the Michael Jackson estate to legal restrictions that came into play only after production was complete—reshaped the film, leading to delays, expensive reshoots, and a completely rewritten third act. On top of that, intra-Jackson family turmoil may have added to the drama surrounding what was initially meant to be the definitive, “unflinching” portrait of the troubled icon. Here’s a breakdown of the very fraught making of Michael.
November 2019: Graham King—the British producer behind Martin Scorsese films like The Aviator (2004) and The Departed (2006) as well as Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)—secures the rights from the Jackson estate to make a film about Michael Jackson with screenwriter John Logan attached. In one year, the producer moves from Queen to the King of Pop.
February 2022: Lionsgate announces its plans to distribute King’s Michael Jackson biopic.
January 2023: Antoine Fuqua, the critically acclaimed director behind Training Day (2001), The Equalizer trilogy (2014-2023), and Emancipation (2022), signs on as director of Michael. The original intention of the film, according to King and Fuqua, is to present a full, “unbiased” portrait of Michael Jackson—flaws and all—despite the heavy involvement of the Jackson estate, which is notorious for attempting to keep Jackson’s image as clean as it can. That potentially destabilizing conflict aside, a more pressing question has emerged: Who will be tapped to play the controversial pop superstar?
January 30, 2023: Michael Jackson has been found—and they didn’t have to look far to find him. Variety announces that after a two-year casting search, Michael’s very own nephew, Jaafar Jackson—the then 26-year-old son of Michael’s brother Jermaine Jackson and his ex-wife Alejandra Oaziaza—has been cast. It’s Jaafar’s debut film role, but people are abuzz with his “uncanny” resemblance to his late uncle. Katherine Jackson, Michael and Jermaine’s mother, says that her grandson “embodies” her late son, while Jaafar says that he’s “humbled and honored” to step into his famous Florsheim loafers.
July 2023: Jaafar’s moonwalk will have to wait. SAG-AFTRA goes on strike, delaying production on Michael.
October 2023: Lionsgate and Universal Pictures International announce that Universal will handle international distribution of Michael.
January 2024: The strike has ended, so Michael can begin in earnest. The rest of the starry cast is announced, including two-time Oscar nominee Colman Domingo as Michael’s domineering father Joe Jackson; Nia Long as his mother, Katherine, and Miles Teller as his longtime attorney John Branca, who also serves as a producer on the film. Production on Michael begins. The film is scheduled to be released on April 18, 2025.
May 30, 2024: Production on Michael wraps without a hitch…or so everyone thinks.
June 2024: This is where the trouble begins, as far as the movie is concerned. According to Variety, attorneys for the Jackson estate discovered a clause in a legal agreement from a case involving 13-year-old Jordan Chandler, who accused Jackson of sexual abuse in 1993. The clause prevents any depictions or mentions of Chandler in any dramatization of Jackson’s life. (Jackson always denied any wrongdoing, and eventually settled with Jordan in 1994 for a reported $20 million).
According to Variety, the filmmakers must go “back to the drawing board” to come up with a new third act for the film. Initially the film was reportedly going to begin in media res, with Jackson staring at his reflection in the mirror as police car lights flash behind him. So a new beginning would have to be concocted as well, leading to a full-scale reworking of the film. As a result, the release of Michael is delayed from April 2025 to October 3, 2025, a.k.a. “Thriller” season.
June 2025: A year passes. The team behind Michael has rewritten the script to end in the late 1980s, before any abuse allegations against Michael Jackson come to light. The cast reassembles for 22 days of reshoots in June. Luckily for Lionsgate, the Jackson estate has agreed to foot the bill for the reshoots. (How generous of them.) Variety claims that the reshoots cost $15 million, while other outlets say the bill could be as much as $50 million. In any case, production on the film now reportedly swells to between $170 and $200 million. Lionsgate publicly denies any reports of “chaos” pertaining to the film. Rumors swirl that the film’s runtime is close to four hours long, and that the studio is considering releasing the biopic in two parts. We saw how well that worked out for Wicked: For Good…
September 2025: The trouble continues. While attending the AmFAR benefit gala at Venice Film Festival, Colman Domingo says that Prince and Paris Jackson, two of Michael Jackson’s children, had been “helpful” and “very much in support” of Michael. While that may be true for Prince—who is an executive producer on the film—Paris does not share this sentiment. Days later, she claps back at Domingo on Instagram, clarifying her involvement (or lack thereof) with the film. “Don’t be telling people I was ‘helpful’ on the set of a movie I had zero per cent involvement in lol that is so weird,” she writes on her Instagram Story. “I read one of the first drafts of the script and gave my notes about what was dishonest / didn’t sit right with me. When they didn’t address it I moved on with my life.”
November 2025: Well, not quite. Months later, Paris comes for John Branca. In November 2025, she files a new objection in an ongoing lawsuit she has against her father’s estate, claiming that Branca has used his position to “enrich and aggrandize himself.” She also has some smoke for Miles Teller, who plays Branca in the film. “It appears that Mr. Branca used his position as an executive producer, a role he has never before performed in connection with any dramatic feature film, to cast the sole A-list actor in the production, Miles Teller, to play himself in the upcoming feature production Michael,” reads the filing. (A source close to the Jackson estate dismissed the filing as “a weak attempt to change the narrative,” and said that the beneficiaries are well taken care of by the estate.) On November 10, a judge sides with the estate, striking down much of Paris’s petition to the court.
March 2026: Rumors swirl that after a private family screening of the film, Janet Jackson is very unhappy with the project. TMZ reports that she is “jealous,” claiming she is the only family member not on board with the film. A character based on Janet does not appear in the film, and her name is not mentioned a single time. Furthermore, she’s not involved with the film as an executive producer, unlike many of her family members. The reasons for her absence from the film, however, may have more to do with her relationship with two of her siblings, Jermaine and Randy, than her relationship with Michael.
April 20, 2026: Michael has its world premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. It’s a star-studded affair, but Janet, Randy, and Paris Jackson skip the premiere entirely. On the carpet, Colman Domingo and Nia Long talk about why the film doesn’t address any of the allegations against Michael. “The film takes place from the ’60s to 1988, so it does not go into the first allegations in, what, 2005,” Domingo said. “So basically, we center it on the makings of Michael, so it’s an intimate portrait of who Michael is.” Long then chimes in: “Through his eyes.”
April 23, 2026: Kat Graham, who was hired to play Diana Ross in the film, announces that her role has been cut due to “legal considerations.” Reviews of the film are mostly negative, with some critics calling it “sanitized” and “not a movie.” But audiences seem to be taking to the film. It earns $12.5 to $13.5 million in previews and another $18.5 million globally, and is on track to gross over $70 million domestically over the weekend.
April 24, 2025: Michael hits theaters nationwide. Will the drama be worth it? Only time will tell.
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