Editor’s Note: Spoiler warning for the “Micheal” movie
Michael Jackson was known as the “King of Pop” during his times of performances with songs like “Billie Jean” and “Thriller” becoming very popular. Jackson had fans after him everywhere he went, even at his home. Unfortunately, on June 25, 2009, Jackson passed away at the age of 50 due to propofol intoxication, according to Harvard Health.
On April 24, 2026, Jackson’s story was recreated with the release of the movie “Michael”, showcasing half of the events that significantly impacted Jackson and his journey of success in the music industry. Rotten Tomatoes states the movie gained a 37% on Tomatometer and gained a 97% on Popcornmeter.
Jafaar Jackson plays the adult Michael Jackson in the recreation of the pop star’s story. The movie itself travels from 1966 to 1984, progressing from the Jackson 5 and his brothers, to how Jackson ended up going solo.
The movie starts off with the origins of the Jackson 5 brothers, and their controlling father, Joseph Jackson. Joseph started them into the music industry with their first performances selling well. Micheal constantly dreams of leaving Joseph’s abuse and starting his own music career.
The film portrayed Joseph as an abusive, controlling father who mostly cares about the boys’ money they made performing. The film also demonstrated excellent emotion with the father’s rage in most of the scenes, showing his desire of controlling the brothers fame.
According to IBT Times, Jaafar is recognized to be the son of Jermaine Jackson, who was in the original Jackson 5 group, and is the nephew of Michael. When asked for the role of Michael by the producer Graham King, Jafaar stated he had no acting career. In 2019, Jafaar released his first single called “Got Me Singing” beginning his future music career in 2021, even appearing in Tito Jackson’s music video “Love One Another”.
Jafaar brought major energy to the role of Michael recreating Michael’s voice, dances, and overall personality. Even when first seeing the film, it felt like the real Michael was actually back and performing with his old energy. The film snuck in many small details on Micheal’s life as well like the adoption of Michael’s chimp Bubbles. The controversial Pepsi scene was added into the movie which involved an incident where after an accidental stage fire, Michael’s hair caught on fire causing his scalp to be severely burned. “Michael” had directed this scene well bringing the emotion and pressure Micheal had felt when this occurred on stage.
“Michael” not only showed his rise in success, but also shared a rise in racial differences for music artists, causing a future impact in the world so all races could have equal access to release music in channels they couldn’t in the past with Music Television (MTV) being the main source of the controversy, stated by Medium. MTV said Michael’s music wouldn’t fit the theme of rock and roll, however rumors at the time said MTV didn’t want the idea of African-Americans on their channel. Eventually, Michael managed to release “Billie Jean” onto MTV, which exploded in popularity.
Overall, “Michael” is an excellent movie covering significant events of Michael with the actors having a great performance accurately portraying each character. This is a highly recommended movie for fans of Micheal’s work or anyone interested in music history. A second film has not been officially confirmed but since it only covers half of his life, it may be a possibility that “Micheal” may return.
