Second Michael Jackson Biopic Will Address Abuse Allegations, Star Says

By Elena Vasquez

Jaafar Jackson, star of Michael, says a second biopic of his uncle will cover the sexual abuse allegations that the first film omitted. "It's important that Michael's voice is heard," the actor said of the sequel, which he says will give airtime to the late singer's point of view.

Michael, released earlier this year and directed by Antoine Fuqua, has become the most commercially successful biopic of all time. Yet the film drew one persistent criticism above all others: it made no mention of the sexual abuse allegations against Jackson.

The omission was not purely editorial. A legal clause, spotted only late in production, stipulated that one of the men who accused Jackson of abusing them as a boy could never be depicted in a fictionalised account of the period. That restriction effectively barred the film from dramatising a central chapter of the singer's later life.

Why did the first film stay silent?

The Guardian reported the details of the contractual constraint. The clause tied the hands of Fuqua and his production team regarding at least one accuser. Any fictionalised treatment of the relevant period involving that individual was prohibited.

The result: an authorised biopic that traced Jackson's rise and career while sidestepping the controversies that shadowed it. Critics singled out this silence as the film's most significant failing.

What does the sequel change?

Jaafar Jackson, who plays his uncle in the franchise, now says the second film will confront the allegations directly. The sequel, he indicated, will present Jackson's own perspective on the accusations — a framing that keeps the project within the family-sanctioned orbit of the first film while widening its scope.

His statement marks the first public commitment from the film's lead to address the material its predecessor avoided. Whether the legal clause that constrained the first production still applies to the sequel remains the question that will shape how far the new film can go.

The takeaway: the most successful music biopic ever made is planning a second act that will tackle the one subject its first act could not.