- Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed said the story is not about Michael Jackson
- Leaving Neverland is a documentary exploring allegations against Jackson
- The allegations relate to the alleged sexual abuse of two boys, there is a sequel
Leaving Neverland 2 was released on 18 March on Channel 4. The director of both documentaries, Dan Reed, said that it is not about Michael Jackson, but about his alleged victims. The award-winning 2019 HBO documentary explores accusations made about Jackson sexually abusing two boys. The story is told from the perspective of the alleged victims as adults, Wade Robson and James Safechuck.
Read More: Leaving Neverland Director Is Planning Third Doc
Allegations of sexual abuse have been continuously refuted by Jacskson’s estate. They sued HBO in 2020 for $100 million for making the documentary. Jackson passed away in June 2009 from an overdose. Jackson’s estate claimed the documentary broke a disparagement clause because of a concert film made for HBO in 1992.
However, Reed has made a sequel, Leaving Neverland 2: Surviving Michael Jackson, which explores the ongoing legal battle faced by the men.
According to Reed, the documentary also features exclusive access to court hearings. In an interview with Variety ahead of its release, Reed emphasizes the documentary was never about Jackson. Read on to find out what he said.
What did the Leaving Neverland director say?
Reed began by emphasizing it was “their story”, referring to Safechuck and Robson. He continued, “A lot of people see it as a story about Michael Jackson, but it is literally the story of these two guys. And this film is just what happened next.”
In his defense, Leaving Neverland 2 does seem to focus on the impact of the legal battle and allegations in adulthood rather than Jackson’s history.
Safechuck and Robson are not the first to accuse the King of Pop of similar wrongdoings. When he was alive, 13-year-old Jordan Chandler accused Jackson of sexually abusing him in 1993. The case was eventually closed.
On making Leaving Neverland 2, Reed said it was to show the continued impact on the men, and that they hadn’t gotten anywhere. “It’s an element of their story that we touched on in Leaving Neverland, but I thought it would be good to go behind the scenes a little bit and see what these guys are going through in their day-to-day lives just in order to be able to go to court. It’s taken 12 years for Wade to even get a court date,” he told Variety.
Also on making the film, Reed said Safechuck and Robson were not hesitant. His prime reasoning for making the documentary was to “show what happened next” after their cases were thrown out.
In November 2026 both men will have their trials, as their lawsuits were reinstated in 2023.
Jackson’s lawyers refused to participate in Leaving Neverland 2
The filmmaker also says that while Jackson’s lawyers refused to participate in the documentary, he was “genuinely interested” to hear their side. “You can see in the film, I end up writing an email saying, “I am begging you, give me something.” And then they just mocked me. So I think that tells you everything you need to know about their desire to put their side across. And I think the way they really wanted to put their narrative out there was this biopic,” Reed said.
There is an upcoming biopic titled Michael set to release on 3 October 2025. The Jackson estate is involved in the upcoming biopic.
Reed also had some damning remarks to make about Jackson’s estate and some issues with the upcoming biopic. Allegedly they had to reshoot some parts and take out any dramatization of Chandler, Jackson’s first accuser.
On this, Reed said: “The script really did try and tackle the Jordie Chandler thing. They did portray Jordie as a liar and his parents as gold diggers, and there are a couple of just plain lies in there. But probably that’s all been cut out now, for obvious reasons. So I wonder how they’re going to get their narrative out there”.
Ouch!
The cut interviews with fans in Leaving Neverland 2
To tell the side of the estate, Reed says he interviewed Jackson superfans but confirms their interviews were cut. He says this was done because Channel 4 claimed they weren’t “keen” on the views of US fans. This may be because Channel 4 is a British TV channel.
Although the fans weren’t his first choice, he says it helps to show the other perspective from those who loved Jackson, even if he “can’t get to the representatives or the family”.
Why didn’t the sequel release on HBO?
Reed said although he would’ve “loved” to release with HBO, the lawsuit was why he couldn’t. However, he did say “yes” he was hopeful they’d release his third planned installment of the documentary now that the lawsuit is over.
Referring back to the message of the documentary, Reed said: “It’s a story about two young men who set out to expose something bad that had been done to them when they were little children and it blew up into something much bigger than we thought. My quite narrow goal is to continue to faithfully depict what happened to these young men on their journey”.
He concluded by saying his goal is “not to knock Jackson off his pedestal,” but to “tell the story of these two guys” and hopefully find an ending to their story.
Leaving Neverland is now streaming on Channel 4 and YouTube via Little Dot Studios.
