After almost seven years in production, the Michael Jackson biopic is finally about to arrive in cinemas – but the road to its release has been far from smooth.

The film stars Jackson’s own nephew Jaafar in the title role, but don’t let that fool you: this has been far from a family affair.

While some of the Jacksons, and the co-executors of his multimillion-dollar estate, have been on board – and calling the shots – since pre-production began in 2019, others haven’t been shy about voicing their criticism.

And this hasn’t been the only behind-the-scenes drama to hit the production…

November 2019: Michael film announced

After the box office success of his Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, producer Graham King secured the rights to produce a film about Jackson in 2019 and quickly tapped Oscar-nominated writer John Logan (Gladiators, Skyfall) to write the script.

News of the deal was first revealed by Deadline, who reported at the time that the film was “not intended to be a sanitised rendering of Jackson’s life”.

“The complexity of Jackson’s life is well known and will not be ignored in a film that will span his entire life,” the publication declared. That plan would, however, change in the coming years…

February 2023: Michael finds its MJ

King didn’t have to look too far to find an actor who could play the King of Pop. Michael’s nephew Jafaar was announced in the role in February 2023, with Colman Domingo and Nia Long confirmed to star as Michael’s parents, and Miles Teller playing one of the film’s producers: Jackson’s lawyer and co-executor of his estate, John Branca, who plays a key role in the movie.

By this point, more details about who would be working on the other side of the lens had emerged too, with Antoine Fuqua – best known for the Equalizer trilogy – on directing duties while John McClain, co-executor of Jackson’s estate, was confirmed to join Branca and King as a producer.

Having been delayed due to the Sag-Aftra strike, filming began in January 2024.

April 2024: First look at Michael revealed

Lionsgate proudly debuted a first look at the biopic at its CinemaCon presentation in April 2024 – when the film was still due to feature the first child abuse allegations against the star.

Jackson faced serious accusations at multiple points during his career, which culminated in a 2005 criminal trial focused on allegations from 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo, who claimed the singer molested him at the infamous Neverland Ranch. With the eyes of the world on the court in California, Jackson – who always maintained his innocence in the face of all allegations – was acquitted.

The first accusation came more than a decade before the trial, when another 13-year-old, Jordan Chandler, accused Jackson of sexual abuse in 1993. While the biopic was never due to address the trial, the initial plan was for the early 1990s to feature.

“We’ll get into all of it,” King had promised. “Behind the unrelenting scrutiny and the accusations and the spotlight, he was simply a man – a man with a very complicated life.”

The teaser showed Jafaar pulling off a seemingly impressive portrayal of his uncle, with snippets of hits including “Man in the Mirror” and “Thriller”. Little did he know, he’d be getting back into character again pretty soon…

June 2025: $15m reshoots needed

It was at this point that the wheels really started to come off. According to a report in the New York Times, the original Michael script did, as King had promised, address the child abuse accusations against him. But the team later realised that for legal reasons this version could never make it to the big screen.

Far from offering scrutiny of the star, or even a somewhat balanced view, the NYT said the first script “went to great lengths to exonerate” its subject, “portraying him as the victim of a shakedown by the family of the first child to come forward, Jordan Chandler”.

This violated the terms of a multimillion-dollar settlement brokered between Jackson and Chandler in 1994, which decreed that neither side was allowed to make public statements about what occurred. A spokesperson for production house Lionsgate confirmed that reams of footage had to be scrapped because it violated the agreement.

The cast and crew then hastily reassembled for a 22-day reshoot that reportedly cost $15m – as writers scrambled to figure out a new ending for the movie, which would no longer touch Chandler’s 1993 allegation.

Amid the behind-the-scenes chaos, Michael’s planned 2025 release date was bumped by a year, to April 2026.

September 2025: Paris Jackson speaks out

If producers thought the reshoots would be their biggest worry, then they were swiftly dealt a blow just three months later when Michael’s daughter addressed the project.

Sing Sing actor Colman Domingo, who plays Jackson patriarch Joe, had said Paris and her brother Prince were “very much in support of our film”. While that is likely true of the latter, who served as an executive producer, Paris wasted no time in clarifying where she stands.

In a post on social media, she wrote: “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.

“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.”

In follow-up posts, the 28-year-old said she “butted out” and left the film alone when she was told the production would not address her notes.

“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,” she wrote. “A big section of 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.

“The narrative is being controlled and there’s a lot of inaccuracy and there’s a lot of just full-blown lies. At the end of the day, that doesn’t really fly with me. Go enjoy it. Do whatever. Leave me out of it.”

The behind-the-scenes drama certainly didn’t do anything to quell interest in the film, though. When the first teaser trailer gave us a proper look at Jafaar as his uncle in November last year, it racked up more than 100 million views in the first 24 hours.

March 2026: Screening sparks family row

Paris is the only Jackson family member to publicly speak out against the film, but reportedly others have privately expressed dissatisfaction with it.

Just weeks before Michael’s release, the wider Jackson family assembled for a private screening – where Janet, undeniably the second most famous of the clan – is said to have been “very critical” of the finished product, according to TMZ.

According to a separate Page Six report, Janet “had something negative about almost every scene”. “The acting, the makeup, how the actors spoke, even how they walked,” a source said. “It was Janet deciding against the room that this movie wasn’t going to meet her approval.”

Jermaine Jackson – the father of the movie’s star, Jaafar – reportedly told her: “You are going to miss this wave. You are so jealous – just get on the wave.”

TMZ reported that Janet, like Paris, didn’t participate in the film, and isn’t even portrayed on the big screen. Ouch.