Michael Jackson remains an itch that lots of people still can’t quite scratch. There was a brief period after Dan Reed’s startling documentary Leaving Neverland dropped in 2019 when Jackson’s music and pop-cultural presence looked destined to go the way of Gary Glitter. But he never quite became fully taboo, partly because of the essential intangibility of the accusations against him but also – and this is something many of us might be uncomfortable admitting – because permanently discarding his sparkling back catalogue would represent an incomparably more profound sacrifice than simply never listening to “I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)” again.
But for his accusers, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, that documentary was merely a staging post in a lengthy battle to hold Jackson (and the companies who now administer his posthumous legal and financial affairs) accountable for the sexual abuse that they alleged Jackson inflicted on them and other children unlucky enough to find themselves in Jackson’s inner circle.
This new film functions as both an update on this process and an insight into what pursuing these allegations has cost the pair. In purely narrative terms, it’s slight and inconclusive – Robson and Safechuck’s legal case has stalled several times since 2019, seemingly on the basis of technicalities. Jackson’s team have successfully argued that the late singer’s sole ownership and control of his affairs mitigated against anyone else being held responsible for his actions. Which seems convenient, not to mention breathtakingly cynical given that bodyguards, gofers and other general lackeys were apparently in Jackson’s presence at all times.
Pressure is clearly coming from everywhere. For example, Reed’s original film was an HBO co-production. But after its release, the Jackson estate hit HBO with a lawsuit accusing the broadcaster of breaking a “non-disparagement clause” in a contract dating back to 1992. Anything that might affect the reputation of the singer was off-limits. And so this follow-up film will mainly be available via YouTube. It will still be widely accessible of course. But the scrutiny is endless and the stakes, even a decade and a half after Jackson’s death, remain incredibly high.
Vince Finaldi, who has been Robson and Safechuck’s chief litigator throughout this process, is a constant presence here. And he offers a bleak insight into how it feels to be at the heart of such a battle. “Generally speaking, I lose one client a year,” he says. “Either to suicide or to the ill-effects that come from abuse, like alcoholism and drug abuse. It takes a toll on you and it takes a toll on your family.” Finaldi is retiring from this case but for Robson and Safechuck, that isn’t an option: the fight goes on, with a new case scheduled for November 2026.
This ongoing – in fact, seemingly endless – legal dance is central to Leaving Neverland 2’s most interesting implicit theme. However it might feel for the two men at the heart of the allegations, the Michael Jackson child sexual abuse allegations are now a cottage industry. They are, of course, an absolute bonanza for a fleet of prosecution and defence lawyers. But the case is now big and intractable enough to support any number of vested interests alongside them, regardless of good faith or otherwise. Take YouTuber and podcast host Andy Signore. Andy is a sceptic. “They’ve changed this case so many damn times,” he says of Robson and Safechuck. “I think they’re financially motivated.” He pauses and addresses Dan Reed: “And I think you are.”
There’s an easy response to this accusation, which Reed leaves hanging. Andy Signore, too, is financially motivated. He’s also part of this circus. This story now represents a world of opportunity. Given the thousands, if not millions of obsessive fans who are unwilling to accept the accusations against Jackson, being a prominent public defender of the singer is potentially a very lucrative and completely open-ended niche to occupy. It could be a job for life and in today’s media landscape, that’s not nothing. For obvious reasons, Jackson’s guilt or innocence will never be definitively established. But nor will we ever stop discussing it. Lawyers, broadcasters, YouTubers, film directors and even TV critics; we’re all in this up to our eyeballs.
But finally, the more that is at stake legally, and reputationally and emotionally, the sadder the whole story becomes. In the end, there’s no reading of this story that doesn’t circle back to the sadness of it all. It’s deception and suffering. It’s tainted dreams and destroyed innocence and confidences violated and memories poisoned. It’s songs that will never sound quite the same again. Whether or not we’re still willing to accept the musical presence of Michael Jackson in our lives, his creativity is now weighted down by something more profoundly upsetting than any comparable body of work in musical history. If this update achieves anything, it’s to act as a reminder of the bleak power and ongoing impact of Reed’s original film. We all left Neverland; we can never go back.
