Given that “Michael” became a billion-dollar hit, there was never much question that Lionsgate would want to keep the music playing. Now, the studio is beginning to put an actual timetable on its sequel to the Michael Jackson biopic.
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During Lionsgate’s first-quarter earnings call, Motion Picture Group chairman Adam Fogelson said the studio is targeting a production start for the follow-up “towards the end of this year or early next,” meaning cameras could begin rolling before the end of 2026.
As for when audiences might actually see it, Fogelson pointed to a fairly broad window.
“I think that end of calendar ’27 and the first half of calendar ’28 would be the current thought of roughly where the movie would go,” he said, adding that Lionsgate is “not ready to announce everything at the moment.”
The still-untitled sequel—“Michael 2” is essentially shorthand for now—is expected to bring back Jaafar Jackson as his late uncle and continue the story beyond the period covered by the first film.
And Lionsgate already has something of a head start. A significant amount of material was shot during production of “Michael” before the movie was reworked, including several large-scale musical sequences that Fogelson said will “almost surely” be incorporated into the sequel.
“We are mostly focused right now on how to make sure we can deliver, at the right price, the biggest, best sequel,” Fogelson said. “That is what the audience is going to want and deserve after the experience we gave them the first time.”
That previously completed footage could prove especially useful given the costly and unusually complicated production history of the first movie. Originally intended to cover a much larger portion of Jackson’s life, Antoine Fuqua’s film underwent extensive changes and reshoots before ultimately focusing on Jackson’s childhood, rise with the Jackson 5, solo superstardom, and career through the late 1980s.
Written by John Logan and produced by Graham King, “Michael” starred Jaafar Jackson alongside Colman Domingo, Nia Long, Miles Teller, Laura Harrier, Jessica Sula, and Mike Myers. The film became an enormous commercial success after opening in April, eventually crossing $1 billion worldwide.
Lionsgate has not yet formally announced the sequel’s director, full cast, budget, or release date. But with production potentially beginning within months, those details presumably won’t remain under wraps for long.
Edward Davis is a senior film journalist and longtime contributor to The Playlist. Davis covers the full breadth of cinema — from major studio releases to independent and international film.
