Jaafar Jackson will reprise his role as Michael Jackson in the Michael biopic sequel in the works at Lionsgate and the late singer’s estate.
In a new interview, Jaafar Jackson said he would want his uncle’s point of view on all the child abuse allegations.
“I think the second film will give even more insight from his point of view, because at the end of the day, [the allegations] are always from someone else’s,” Jaafar Jackson said in an interview with GQ Middle East.
He continued, “It’s someone else’s story. It’s someone else’s idea of what it is, and it’s mainly driven by an agenda. And that’s really the issue we’ve been having as a family – not having Michael’s voice being heard. I think that’s very, very important, especially in the late years.”
Allegations against Michael Jackson started in the early 90s and were not addressed in the first film, as the Antoine Fuqua-directed film ends in 1987 with the release of the Bad music video. The filmmaker said the biopic originally included scenes covering the allegations, but they were later removed to focus on Michael Jackson’s journey to stardom and what made him who he is.
“This first film focuses on Michael from his roots. So you get that idea of who he was before he had all the success and became the icon that people are familiar with, you understand who he was as a human being first, because at the end of the day, that’s who he was in the ’90s until he passed,” Jaafar Jackson said.
He added, “He never changed that purity, that sense of always wanting to find the good in other people. And no matter all the stuff he went through, how he was treated, what things were said about him, he never stopped treating people with kindness. He never stopped believing in and wanting to look for the good in people… even though he was broken, his heart still stayed the same… I hope that this is felt in the second movie.”
In an interview with Deadline, Lionsgate’s Adam Fogelson gave a timetable for when audiences can expect the Michael sequel, telling us, “We are targeting a production start towards the end of this year or early next.”
