A nonetheless from Leaving Neverland. Picture: HBO
Leaving Neverland, the 2019 documentary about Michael Jackson’s alleged kid abuse, is returning with a sequel, however to not HBO. Dan Reed’s film was once a success at the platform and gained the Primetime Emmy for Highest Documentary or Nonfiction Particular. On the other hand, Leaving Neverland 2: Surviving Michael Jackson is out on YouTube in america. Beneath, the whole thing we all know concerning the follow-up and the court cases concerned.
The unique Leaving Neverland chronicled the allegations of youth sexual abuse towards Michael Jackson by way of Wade Robson and James Safechuck. Its sequel follows Robson and Safechuck as they try to get a tribulation after suing Jackson’s corporations, which can be managed by way of his estates. These days, the case is about to visit trial in California in 2026.
The whole 53-minute-long documentary is lately to be had on YouTube. Within the U.Okay., the documentary premiered on March 18 on Channel 4.
Following the discharge of Leaving Neverland in 2020, the Michael Jackson property sued HBO for $100 million, claiming the corporate violated a 1992 non-disparagement settlement. The go well with was once settled by way of each side in 2024, however, in line with Puck’s Matt Belloni, HBO took down the unique Leaving Neverland from Max as a part of the agreement.
Dan Reed, the British director who made each motion pictures, says freeing the documentary on YouTube was once no longer essentially his selection. “I might have beloved to free up this with HBO,” Reed instructed Selection on March 13. “That wasn’t imaginable. Obviously, it’s associated with the lawsuit or the arbitration dispute. However HBO don’t name me up and say, ‘Whats up, that is what’s taking place with that case.’ All of it occurs beneath wraps, so I don’t know.” On the other hand, he does appear interested by the chance of a YouTube free up compared to a streaming undertaking. “It feels as despite the fact that possibly the sector of streaming is extra wary [about] tough topics, political topics, topics that put folks’s enamel on edge and lead them to disenchanted,” he stated to Cut-off date in a March 13 tale. “So as to not strike the fallacious notice with the sort of huge subscribership, you’ll be able to’t in point of fact find the money for to do the rest that isn’t completely secure.”
That is meant to be a three-part sequence with the 3rd installment protecting the trial. Reed instructed Selection that he considers this movie, the second one installment, to be “a bridge movie in between what was once a horny high-profile get started and what I am hoping will likely be an excessively dramatic finishing.”
