Lionsgate has dropped the final trailer for Michael, the long-awaited big-screen biopic of pop legend Michael Jackson. It is hitting theaters on April 24. Antoine Fuqua, the guy behind Training Day and The Equalizer, directs, and John Logan, who wrote Gladiator and Skyfall, handled the script. The trailer itself pulled in record numbers online, but the hype comes with plenty of drama.
The footage jumps into Michael Jackson’s journey, from unknown kid to global icon, set to a soundtrack of his biggest hits.
Final Trailer for Michael Jackson Biopic MICHAEL Drops
At the center of the film is Jaafar Jackson, Michael’s nephew, taking on the role for his first-ever feature film. His grandmother, Katherine Jackson, who is also Michael’s mom, gave her seal of approval, saying that Jaafar captures her son’s essence.
The teaser trailer, which was released in November 2025, accumulated 116.2 million views within 24 hours of its release, a record high for a musical biopic or concert film of all time, exceeding the previous record held by Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.
The cast is stacked. Colman Domingo is cast as the singer’s father and manager, Joe Jackson; Nia Long assumes the role of mother Katherine; Miles Teller is cast as entertainment attorney John Branca; Kat Graham as Diana Ross; and Kendrick Sampson appears as Quincy Jones.
The production’s path to theatres has not been easy, even though the box office momentum has been good. The film was first set to come out in April 2025, then it was moved to October 2025, and finally it was set to come out on April 24, 2026.
This timeline was thrown off when lawyers for the Jackson estate found a clause in a 1993 settlement with accuser Jordan Chandler that said he couldn’t be shown in any film. The discovery at the last minute made it necessary to completely rewrite the third act.
The cast got back together in June 2025 for 22 more days of filming to shoot the new ending, which cost $10 million or more.
One source who watched the finished film told Variety that Michael now ends with Jackson at the height of his career, getting ready to go on stage for his “Bad” tour. There is no mention of the child sex abuse allegations that were originally the main focus of the film’s third act.
Reports say that in the new version, the main dramatic tension in the movie comes from Jackson’s troubled relationship with his controlling father, Joe, who didn’t want his son to have a solo career outside of the Jackson 5.
The choice to remove the accusations has gotten a lot of angry responses. In a conversation with The Daily Beast, an attorney for two of Jackson’s accusers, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, called the movie “propaganda.”
Paris, Jackson’s daughter, who had nothing to do with the project, said it was full of “full-blown lies” and that “the narrative is being controlled.”
Reports say that Janet, Jackson’s sister, was not happy after the movie was shown to the Jackson family.
According to International Business Times, the movie has a production budget of $155 million, making it one of the most expensive music biopics ever made.
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