Quincy Jones, as played by Kendrick Sampson, provides a meta narration over the teaser for Antoine Fuqua’s Michael. “I know you’ve been waiting a long time for this,” he says. “This is your story. Honor your past, and embrace the future. That’s what people want.” What people want from a Michael Jackson biopic varies depending on how the audience perceives his legacy. This film, premiering April 24, 2026, takes a celebratory stance on the life and work of a groundbreaking artist—at least in the first teaser.
There were reports that Michael was splitting into two parts, though that plan was never confirmed and it’s unclear from the trailer whether that remains the case. This film, at least, “tells the story of Michael Jackson’s life beyond the music, tracing his journey from the discovery of his extraordinary talent as the lead of the Jackson Five, to the visionary artist whose creative ambition fueled a relentless pursuit to become the biggest entertainer in the world,” per the synopsis. “Highlighting both his life off-stage and some of the most iconic performances from his early solo career, the film gives audiences a front-row seat to Michael Jackson as never before. This is where his story begins.”
Michael is already a controversial film, because Michael Jackson was a controversial man. The film received the backing of the Jackson estate, and the singer’s nephew Jaafar Jackson is playing the titular role. Their involvement naturally led critics to suspect that the movie wouldn’t take a hard look at the allegations of child sexual abuse against Jackson. In fact, the allegations were reportedly included in the script, though Puck‘s Matt Belloni claimed the movie “wants very much to convince you Michael is innocent.” Portraying the situation at all became tricky when it was discovered that a legal agreement was made with Jackson accuser Jordan Chandler’s family never to depict them in any dramatization of Jackson’s life. As a result, Fuqua and co. supposedly had to reconfigure the film’s entire third act after it had largely already been shot.
Meanwhile, the King of Pop’s daughter Paris Jackson has distanced herself from the entire enterprise. After Colman Domingo—who plays the Jacksons’ infamous patriarch, Joe Jackson—said Paris and her brother Prince were supporting the film, Paris denied any involvement on social media. “[Colman Domingo], don’t be telling people I was ‘helpful’ on the set of a movie I had zero percent involvement in lol that is so weird,” she wrote on her Instagram Story (via The Hollywood Reporter). “I read one of the first drafts of the script and gave my notes about what was dishonest/didn’t sit right with me and when they didn’t address it I moved on with my life. Not my monkeys not my circus. God bless and god speed.”
Reiterating in a follow-up post that she was told her notes wouldn’t be addressed at all, so she “just butted out and I’ve left it alone because it’s not my project. So, you know, they’re going to make whatever they’re going to make. A big reason why I haven’t said anything up until this point is because I know a lot of you guys are gonna be happy with it. A big section, the film panders to a very specific section of my dad’s fandom that still lives in the fantasy, and they’re gonna be happy with it.”
