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The 2026 biographical film Michael, directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by John Logan, traces the pop icon's early life from his rise with the Jackson 5 in the 1960s to the Bad World Tour in the late 1980s, with his nephew Jaafar Jackson portraying the adult singer and Juliano Valdi as young Michael in their film debuts. After development began in 2019 and was delayed by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, principal photography took place from January to May 2024, with reshoots in June 2025 pushing the budget to $155–200 million, and the film controversially removed references to the 1993 child abuse allegations due to a legal settlement clause. Premiering in Berlin on April 10, 2026, and hitting UK and US theaters on April 22 and 24, the film earned generally negative reviews, with critics praising Jaafar's performance but dismissing the narrative as "sanitized." Nevertheless, it grossed $1.021 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing biographical film ever, the first biopic to surpass $1 billion, and the top-grossing Lionsgate release, with a sequel already in development.