(March 14, 2026) – There’ve been several controversies swirling around the upcoming Michael Jackson biopic Michael—and the film hasn’t even premiered yet. The most recent involves a reported feud between siblings Janet and Jermaine Jackson following a family-only early screening in Los Angeles earlier this month.
There’s also the reported shade that Michael’s daughter Paris Jackson threw toward actor Colman Domingo—who portrays her grandfather Joseph Jackson—after he suggested that Michael’s three children had endorsed the film. Paris quickly clarified that she had not while suggesting that the film might be sugarcoating her father’s life.
And what about the music? Just-released promos of the film’s soundtrack indicate that only a handful of songs—beginning with the Jackson 5’s earliest hits and culminating with Michael’s “Bad” single—are included, suggesting that the film mainly covers only that part of Jackson’s long musical journey.
Then there’s lead actor Jaafar Jackson—Jermaine’s son and Michael’s nephew—who portrays the late King of Pop. While teaser trailers showing Jaafar—in his acting debut—recreating iconic MJ moments like the “Thriller” video have received mostly favorable reviews, some have criticized the casting due to his dubious resemblance to his late uncle.
But perhaps the most intriguing controversy involves the reported Janet vs. Jermaine saga.
Jermaine—without any regard to irony—reportedly accused his youngest sister of being jealous of Michael following their viewing at the Los Angeles screening. That accusation is striking considering big brother himself faced similar criticism decades ago when he recorded the Michael Jackson diss track “Word to the Badd!” in 1991.
In that headline-grabbing tune set to a new jack beat, the “Don’t Take It Personal” singer issued jabs like “Reconstructed, been abducted, don’t know who you are” aimed at Michael’s ever-changing looks, and “Never think about who you love, only think about number one…you forget about where you started from,” apparently targeting his little brother’s well-documented ambition to be no less than the world’s greatest entertainer.
That song’s most telling lyric, though, was the line, “It ain’t about you takin’ my pie, you been takin’ for a long time…,” an apparent dig at Michael upstaging Jermaine as the Jackson 5’s lead singer after the two shared lead vocals on several of the brothers’ earliest hits. If there were any doubts then about which Jackson was the most talented and would become the biggest star, they were immediately erased when we first heard Michael belting the immortal hook, “Ohh, baby, give me one more chance” on their debut No. 1 hit, “I Want You Back.”
But at least Jermaine could relish being the second most-famous Jackson sibling, right?
Well, that’s where Janet comes in. Since 1986, Janet has been the family’s other musical icon. In fact, it was exactly 40 years ago this month that the stage was set for the youngest sibling to take over as the Robin to Michael’s Batman. On the Billboard Hot 100 dated March 15, 1986, Jermaine’s last top 40 hit, “I Think It’s Love,” made its entry (at No. 39 on its way to a No. 16 peak). A week later, Janet’s first top 40–“What Have You Done for Me Lately”—also came in at No. 39. That song would climb all the way to No. 4 and become the first of dozens of Janet hits that included ten No. 1 singles. Those numbers are second only to Michael’s among the Jackson clan. That top-40 “handoff” proved symbolic—it marked the precise moment Janet, not Jermaine, became the second-most important Jackson sibling in popular music. And Janet remains—for now—the last Jackson to secure a No. 1 album (2015’s Unbreakable). Janet’s legacy is clearly intact and is not in question.
Accusing her of being jealous of Michael’s unattainable worldwide fame seems like a bit of brotherly projection on Jermaine’s part.
For years it could be argued that the “Let’s Get Serious” singer has had a say in how the family’s legacy is portrayed. The film to which many will be comparing Michael—1992’s made-for-TV five-hour miniseries The Jacksons: An American Dream—was co-produced by Jermaine. That critically acclaimed film came just months after “Word to the Badd!” and, in one of many not-so-flattering subplots, tackled Michael’s insecurities about his appearance—particularly the size of his nose and struggles with teenage acne—and his older brothers’ increasing dalliances with groupies as they came of age.
And now, 34 years later, comes Michael—a film Jermaine has touted as reclaiming the family’s legacy. Ironically, it stars his son Jaafar in the lead role. Yet the film reportedly does not depict Janet Jackson at all, despite her enormous presence in the family’s story between the Thriller and Bad eras.
The film also dubiously omits youngest Jackson brother Randy, who replaced Jermaine in the group when they famously left Motown for Epic Records in 1976. Jermaine’s second wife—and mother of Jaafar, Genevieve Oaziaza—was Randy’s former girlfriend. Notably, long-time family black sheep La Toya is depicted in the film (played by Welsh actress Jessica Sula).
But family drama aside, given its subject’s worldwide fame and immeasurable impact on 20th century pop culture, Michael has the potential to be one of the most successful rock-and-roll biopics in history, surpassing even the 2018 smash Bohemian Rhapsody, the Freddie Mercury–centered Queen biopic that grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide and set box-office records for music biopics. The question is whether the controversies surrounding Michael will help or hurt its cause.
Will fans flock to see a three-and-a-half-hour movie that—like The Jacksons: An American Dream—covers only the first three-plus decades of Michael’s musical legacy, reportedly up to and including his Bad era? Will fans want to see a film that doesn’t include sister Janet at least being depicted in the important year leading up to Bad, when the youngest Jackson’s Control was all the rage and Michael was in the process of recording his follow-up to Thriller, the biggest selling album of all time? In its attempts to reestablish the Jackson family legacy, will this film over-sanitize the issues—legal and otherwise—that plagued Jackson’s career during the last two decades of his life?
One thing’s certain—controversy sells. And the Jackson drama surrounding this film, which opens worldwide on Friday, April 24, almost guarantees a big opening weekend. Whether it holds our collective interest beyond the flash and spectacle of reimagined groundbreaking music videos and inescapable early-career earworms remains to be seen.
Will we all want to just “get on the wave” as Jermaine suggested his sister Janet should do? Time will tell. But if nothing else, Jackson fans know one thing: when it comes to the first family of pop, the drama rarely stays offstage for long.
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
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