The Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, has moonwalked into theaters, pulling massive box office projections and an even bigger question mark hanging over Hollywood. Lionsgate, Universal, the estate, director Antoine Fuqua, and producer Graham King are all watching the opening weekend numbers like hawks. The music is playing, but nobody has called for the encore just yet.

The sequel to Michael is not officially confirmed, but the groundwork is already laid. A gold-lettered title card reading "His Story Continues" appears at the film's end, and it is not subtle about what comes next. The film only covers Michael Jackson's rise through the 1984 Victory Tour, leaving the 'Bad' era, the 1993 claims, and his final 2009 chapter completely untouched, and that is a lot of story left on the table.

Whether a sequel gets made, however, will likely come down to one thing: money. Michael is tracking for a $65–$70 million domestic opening weekend, which would dethrone Straight Outta Compton as the biggest music biopic debut in history. Internationally, Universal is projecting a global opening close to $150 million, with Japan and Germany leading the charge. For a film that cost nearly $200 million after reshoots, those numbers matter enormously.

Lionsgate chair Adam Fogelson confirmed the team is actively preparing, but stopped short of an official greenlight. Then the CFO went further, referencing Michael 2 multiple times during a March 2026 financial call and floating a Fiscal 2028 release window. That kind of detail does not surface on an earnings call unless a sequel is already in motion.

As the studios quietly budgeted for part 2, the cast was already putting in the work long before anyone said sequel.

The cast of Michael was never going to be an easy pick

Jaafar Jackson did not just inherit the name in the movie Michael; he earned the role through a punishing two-year audition. He retrained his natural spin direction for three years until his feet were numb. Colman Domingo, Nia Long, and Miles Teller were then carefully built around him as Joe Jackson, Katherine Jackson, and attorney John Branca, respectively.

A clause buried in Michael Jackson's 1994 legal settlement essentially blew up the original film. It prohibited any depiction of the 1993 claims, which formed the heart of the third act, and discovering it mid-production triggered $15 million in reshoots. The ending was scrapped, the story was rebuilt from scratch as an origin tale, and suddenly everything from the 'Bad' era to Jackson's 2009 death became sequel territory.

What are your thoughts on whether the Michael sequel should tackle the claims head-on? Let us know in the comments.

Written by

Shraddha Priyadarshi

Edited by

Itti Mahajan