{"id":372,"date":"2026-04-25T03:43:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T03:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/04\/25\/michael-jackson-biopic-condemned-as-ghoulish-sanitized\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T03:43:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T03:43:00","slug":"michael-jackson-biopic-condemned-as-ghoulish-sanitized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/04\/25\/michael-jackson-biopic-condemned-as-ghoulish-sanitized\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson Biopic Condemned as Ghoulish, Sanitized"},"content":{"rendered":"<article id=\"post-553546\">\n<div>\n<p><span><span>\u8aad\u66f8\u6642\u9593\uff1a <\/span> <span> 3<\/span> <span>\u5206<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehollywoodgossip.com\/2022\/08\/michael-jackson-estate-targeted-latoya-jackson-over-explosive-murder-claims-in-memoir\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jackson Estate<\/a> waged a 5-year legal war against HBO.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, they won \u2014 getting <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehollywoodgossip.com\/slideshows\/leaving-neverland-the-michael-jackson-documentarys-biggest-bombs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Leaving Neverland<\/a><\/em> permanently removed from HBO Max due to a contract from 1992.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the new Michael biopic is telling a new version of the legendary singer\u2019s story.<\/p>\n<p>The film\u2019s story ends before any allegations of sexual misconduct emerged. And people are <em>furious<\/em>.<\/p>\n<figure><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" alt=\"Jaafar Jackson promotes 'Michael' on April 10, 2026.\"   src=\"https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0424_jaafarjackson_01-scaled.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"><figcaption>Jaafar Jackson attends the \u201cMichael\u201d Global Fan Premiere at Uber Eats Music Hall on April 10, 2026.<span> (Photo Credit: Andreas Rentz\/Getty Images for Universal Pictures)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"h-michael-tells-a-very-selective-story-about-the-king-of-pop\">\u2018Michael\u2019 tells a very selective story about the King of Pop<\/h2>\n<p>In <em>Michael<\/em>, the titular singer\u2019s own nephew, Jaafar, portrays the larger-than-life King of Pop during his meteoric rise.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Jackson first became famous as part of the Jackson 5. <\/p>\n<p>The siblings\u2019 infamous father\u2019s plans paid off for the entire family, and all that it cost was unspeakable psychological damage that would become a family curse.<\/p>\n<p>Michael himself was the most successful, breakout out into a solo career that is now much better known than the rest of his family\u2019s work combined.<\/p>\n<p>That is covered in the biopic. And basically <em>only<\/em> that is covered in the biopic.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p> <iframe title=\"Michael | Official Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-cookieconsent=\"statistics, marketing\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3zOLzsbOleM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><div class=\"cookieconsent-optout-statistics cookieconsent-optout-marketing\">\u53d7\u3051\u5165\u308c\u3066\u304f\u3060\u3055\u3044 <a href=\"javascript:Cookiebot.renew()\">statistics, marketing<\/a> \u3053\u306e\u52d5\u753b\u3092\u8996\u8074\u3059\u308b\u306b\u306f\u30af\u30c3\u30ad\u30fc\u304c\u5fc5\u8981\u3067\u3059\u3002.<\/div> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p><em>Michael <\/em>does not include or address the famous sexual abuse allegations against the late singer.<\/p>\n<p>This was clearly a film intended to cater to fans who enjoyed his music and would simply rather not think about the harrowing allegations of sexual abuse leveled at him by a number men who say that he abused them as children.<\/p>\n<p>The Jackson Estate financially backed the film. <em>Michael <\/em>uses the singer\u2019s original vocals for some of the numerous vocal numbers.<\/p>\n<p>One genuinely positive thing that critics have had to say is that Jaafar, son of Jermaine Jackson, did an exemplary job of portraying his uncle.<\/p>\n<blockquote data-bluesky-uri=\"at:\/\/did:plc:fhzyn2bjim75qpcnrqcvddgv\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mjz75xl36s2t\" data-bluesky-cid=\"bafyreihmo6nb2wli25u5setabit7knjzft6m3nezosuz2xacrnya7we4qe\" data-bluesky-embed-color-mode=\"dark\"><p>\u2014 Win98 Tech Support (<a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:fhzyn2bjim75qpcnrqcvddgv?ref_src=embed\">@win98tech.bsky.social<\/a>) <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:fhzyn2bjim75qpcnrqcvddgv\/post\/3mjz75xl36s2t?ref_src=embed\">April 21, 2026 at 10:32 AM<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"h-the-bad-jokes-write-themselves\">The \u2018Bad\u2019 jokes write themselves<\/h2>\n<p>The rest of the film, however, did not receive rave reviews.<\/p>\n<p>Simply put, a lot of people found it straight-up appalling that the biopic ignored the singer\u2019s biggest scandal.<\/p>\n<p>There are many \u2014 essentially, anyone who isn\u2019t a fan of his music \u2014 for whom his child sex-abuse allegations are more infamous than his songs ever were.<\/p>\n<p>Even many who once enjoyed Michael\u2019s music can certainly agree that the allegations of sex crimes against children are more <em>important<\/em> than how fun his music was.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeparating the art from the artist\u201d makes sense if you want to listen to a bop (and the artist or author or whoever is dead and will not benefit from your enjoyment). But it doesn\u2019t really make sense in a biopic, which is inherently about the <em>artist<\/em>.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p> <iframe title=\"Michael (2026) Final Trailer - Jaafar Jackson\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-cookieconsent=\"statistics, marketing\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/k-YAcjaLuSI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><div class=\"cookieconsent-optout-statistics cookieconsent-optout-marketing\">\u53d7\u3051\u5165\u308c\u3066\u304f\u3060\u3055\u3044 <a href=\"javascript:Cookiebot.renew()\">statistics, marketing<\/a> \u3053\u306e\u52d5\u753b\u3092\u8996\u8074\u3059\u308b\u306b\u306f\u30af\u30c3\u30ad\u30fc\u304c\u5fc5\u8981\u3067\u3059\u3002.<\/div> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>According to a stunning report from <em><a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/film\/news\/michael-movie-reshoots-removing-child-abuse-allegations-1236710221\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Variety<\/a><\/em>, <em>Michael <\/em>would have originally included at least some references to the molestation allegations.<\/p>\n<p>A historic NDA from a settlement with accuser Jordan Chandler forbids his depiction in any form in the film. (Old contracts seem to be doing a lot of favors for the singer\u2019s image.)<\/p>\n<p>This meant a whopping $15 million in reshoots and a partial rewrite. The film ended up covering Michael\u2019s story from the \u201960s until the \u201980s, at which point it stopped.<\/p>\n<p>Critics have likened this to a biopic about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehollywoodgossip.com\/2026\/03\/jeffrey-epstein-authorities-search-sprawling-new-mexico-property-for-dead-bodies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> as a financier, palling around with tech billionaires and powerful politicians, with no mention whatsoever of victims.<\/p>\n<p>But we cannot rule out that someone will eventually make a biopic that matches that description. It takes a lot to make a good movie. But to simply make <em>a movie<\/em>, all that you need is money.<\/p>\n<p>We should count ourselves lucky that Epstein couldn\u2019t moonwalk or whatever, or maybe such a project would have an audience.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reading Time: 3 minutes The Jackson Estate waged a 5-year legal war against HBO. Ultimately, they won \u2014 getting Leaving Neverland permanently removed from HBO Max due to a contract from 1992. Now, the new Michael biopic is telling a new version of the legendary singer\u2019s story. The film\u2019s story ends before any allegations of sexual misconduct emerged. And people are furious. Jaafar Jackson attends the \u201cMichael\u201d Global Fan Premiere at Uber Eats Music Hall on April 10, 2026. (Photo Credit: Andreas Rentz\/Getty Images for Universal Pictures) \u2018Michael\u2019 tells a very selective story about the King of Pop In Michael, the titular singer\u2019s own nephew, Jaafar, portrays the larger-than-life King [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,7,2,25,26,27,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-email","category-featured","category-hollywood","category-jaafar-jackson","category-michael-jackson","category-movie-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}