Gavin Montijo ‘26, Sports Editor
Legendary pop star and the King of Pop, Michael Jackson (MJ), has long needed a movie made about his legendary life story. Alongside the recent rise of biopics of musicians, it was only a matter of time before one was made. Releasing April 24 of this year with a two hour and 10 minute run time, Michael stars Jackson’s nephew, Jaafar Jackson, as MJ himself in the film. The movie will cover Jackson’s early life, including his time spent with the Jackson 5 as well as his rise to becoming a full blown sensation. Jafaar is making his first acting debut and the massive film is directed by Antoine Fuqua—who directed films like Southpaw, Training Day, and The Equalizer series. Fuqua described the making of a film about a person as big as MJ as “a very spiritual journey.”
The movie has been in production since early 2024 and has gone through many revisions due to legal battles and needing approval from the Jackson family estate. The original release date was slated for April 2025 and was supposed to focus more on MJ’s later life and the sexual abuse allegations against him, but due to the estate not approving and a settlement with the alleged victim, they needed to reshoot it. MJ was acquitted of all charges in 2005, and the film including these allegations would have broken a settlement from 1993 that said the accusers would never be dramatized. Due to this, the film will now focus more on his rise to fame; however, with the Jackson estate being heavily involved in the film, many worry about the accuracy of some events as the estate represents his entire family and wants to paint his legacy and image as perfect as possible with not showing the struggles MJ faced.
MJ’s dad, Joe Jackson, was MJ and his brothers’ manager during his Jackson 5 days and has been criticized for his parenting and managing style. MJ has said that his dad physically and mentally abused him and that he missed out on a true childhood. His father forced him and his brothers to rehearse for five hours a day after school while allegedly hitting them if they messed up. MJ has said though that without this discipline, he would not have been as successful; many think it would be important to add his father’s abuse as the movie is set to include a large part of his Jackson 5 era. Many wonder if it will be included in the film due to its large impact on MJ and his career due to the estate needing to sign off on the film meaning they have to approve of all interpretations of the family members. Due to the estate wanting to protect their whole family and not paint his father in a negative way, they might opt to not sign off if it is included in the film.
The movie’s original run time was rumored to be three and a half hours and with the cut, it is rumored that it could be split into two separate films with the second focusing on his later life, but this has not been confirmed. Jafaar is also a gamble as the lead role as in an interview he said, “I never dreamed of being an actor or even thought of playing him.” While the film is going to draw fans, the censorship by the Jackson family estate and not telling the full truth of his story could boost the film or make it flop as people would want to see the authentic story of MJ instead of a water downed, unauthentic version.
Musician biopics have become huge after the huge success of Bohemian Rhapsody that followed the band Queen and the life of their lead singer, Freddie Mercury. Companies have tried to capitalize off this recent explosion in this genre and some films have done well like Elvis, as well as Rocketman that followed the legendary artists Elvis Presley and Elton John. CBC writer Jackson Weaver said, “His name [Michael] alone may be enough to help the film find an audience.” On the other hand there are films like the Amy Winehouse biopic—Back to Black—which flopped. Many believe the film capitalized off of the tragic addiction she faced and focused on her tragedy instead of truly telling her story. Michael could be another hit like Elvis that did cover both the highs and tragedies that he as a musician faced throughout his life while still being entertaining, or could be a more tamed, censored version that plays it safe in order to draw in the casual audience.
Lyon Life 