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The Jackson Estate waged a five-year legal war against HBO.
In the end they won: they got Leaving Neverland permanently removed from HBO Max due to a 1992 contract.
Now, Michael’s new biopic tells a new version of the legendary singer’s story.
The film’s story ends before accusations of sexual misconduct arise. and the people are furious.
‘Michael’ tells a very selective story about the King of Pop
In Miguelthe titular singer’s own nephew, Jaafar, plays the larger-than-life king of pop during his meteoric rise.
Michael Jackson first became famous as part of the Jackson 5.
The brothers’ father’s nefarious plans paid off for the entire family, and all it cost was unspeakable psychological damage that would become a family curse.
Michael himself was the most successful, launching a solo career that is now far better known than the rest of his family’s work combined.
That’s covered in the biopic. and basically only that’s covered in the biopic.
Miguel does not include or address the famous sexual abuse allegations against the late singer.
This was clearly a film meant to cater to fans who enjoyed his music and simply preferred not to think about the harrowing accusations of sexual abuse made against him by several men who say he abused them when they were children.
The Jackson Estate financially backed the film. Miguel uses the singer’s original voice for some of the numerous vocal numbers.
One genuinely positive thing that critics have said is that Jaafar, Jermaine Jackson’s son, did an exemplary job playing his uncle.
Reviews of the Michael Jackson biopic are in
— Win98 technical support (@win98tech.bsky.social) April 21, 2026 at 10:32
‘Bad’ jokes write themselves
The rest of the film, however, did not receive rave reviews.
Simply put, many people found it absolutely appalling that the biopic ignored the singer’s biggest scandal.
There are many (essentially anyone who is not a fan of his music) for whom his allegations of child sexual abuse are more infamous than his songs.
Even many who once enjoyed Michael’s music can agree that accusations of sexual crimes against children are more important How fun his music was.
“Separating the art from the artist” makes sense if you want to listen to a bop (and the artist or author or whoever is dead and won’t benefit from your enjoyment). But it doesn’t really make sense in a biopic, which is inherently about artist.
According to an impressive report by Variety, Miguel originally would have included at least some references to sexual abuse allegations.
A landmark confidentiality agreement settlement with accuser Jordan Chandler prohibits his portrayal in any form in the film. (The old contracts seem to be doing the singer’s image a lot of favors.)
This meant a whopping $15 million in reshoots and a partial rewrite. The film ended up covering Michael’s story from the ’60s to the ’80s, at which point it stopped.
Critics have compared this to a biopic about Jeffrey Epstein as a financier, liaising with tech billionaires and powerful politicians, without mentioning the victims at all.
But we can’t rule out that someone will eventually make a biopic that matches that description. It takes a lot to make a good movie. But just do a movieall you need is money.
We should consider ourselves lucky that Epstein couldn’t walk on the moon or something, or maybe a project like that would have an audience.
