Things are only getting better for Michael, the musical biopic focused on the beginnings and solo career of musical legend Michael ‘The King of Pop’ Jackson. Antoine Fuqua directs the film, working from a Joe Logan script, and directs a star-studded cast led by Jackson’s own nephew Jaafar Jackson, alongside Juliano Valdi, Nia Long, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Laura Harrier, Jessica Sula, Mike Myers, Miles Teller, and Colman Domingo.

The narrative charts Jackson’s beginning in Motown’s Jackson 5, before breaking away from the group and his father’s grip to become a record-smashing, godly artistic household name who would shake up music and culture, such as releasing the best-selling album of all time (1982’s Thriller) and becoming the first Black artist to have his short films platformed on MTV. 

Despite postponed release dates, increased budgets, taxing reshoots and initial negative reviews, Michael is powering through and maintaining immense success, such as recent box office reports showcasing a massive earning of $700 million, meaning the film now surpasses Bryan Singer’s Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody

The film concludes in the late ’80s with a London performance from the Bad tour, which was then-28-year-old Jackson’s seventh solo album, before a title card tells us “His story continues…”.

So where exactly are we with that? Lionsgate have good news to share.

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“We’re really excited about the progress we’re making,” Adam Fogelson, the Lionsgate Studios Motion Picture Chair, shared. “All the conversations that we’ve been having with all of the appropriate parties continue to go exceptionally well, and I would say that there is a ton of incredibly entertaining Michael Jackson story, and much of the biggest and most popular parts of his music catalogue that were not touched upon in the first film.”

“We can go forward and backwards in telling this story. There are so many other events that happened, even in the time frame of the original movie, that weren’t touched upon,” he added. “So we’re very, very confident that we’ve got an incredibly entertaining movie that will appeal once again to a global audience as the pieces come together.”

Fogelson assured fans, “We’ll make sure we make a big and satisfying movie for a global audience once again, so I wouldn’t want to quantify exactly what that’s going to look like. But undoubtedly, that 25% to 30% will be material.”

“We believe there is a lot more story to tell and a lot more music to share,” added CEO Jon Feltheimer.

Michael is in cinemas now.

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