Why the ‘Leaving Neverland’ Sequel Won’t Be on HBO
Brian Welk
A sequel to the bombshell 2019 documentary “Leaving Neverland” that featured the stories of two sexual abuse accusers of Michael Jackson will premiere on YouTube in the U.S. next month, not on HBO where the original film made waves after its Sundance premiere.
The documentary, titled “Leaving Neverland 2: Surviving Michael Jackson,” again follows accusers Wade Robson and James Safechuck and is again directed by Dan Reed. This film, however, looks at Robson and Safechuck after they went public with their accusations against Jackson, including the “ongoing legal battle, the resulting personal toll, and the backlash they faced from Jackson’s global fanbase,” according to an official synopsis. The film also includes access to court hearings and other details about how Jackson’s team worked to prevent Safechuck’s legal case from reaching trial.
The film is an hour-long special that will first air on Channel 4 in the UK on March 18, as was announced last week. On Wednesday, February 26, it was announced that Little Dot Studios, a division of All3Media, acquired the U.S. rights to the film and will release it stateside shortly after it premieres in the UK, as Deadline first reported.
The film will play on Little Dot’s premium YouTube channel, Real Stories, a channel that has 6.4 million YouTube subscribers. A press release says the decision to release it on YouTube is to ensure “the film reaches a wide and diverse audience by leveraging its growing dominance as a platform for long-form viewing.”
But as to why the sequel is not also on HBO, the network became embroiled in a legal battle with the Michael Jackson estate after “Leaving Neverland” came out in 2019, which the estate won on appeal in late 2020, sending the matter to arbitration.
After the release of “Leaving Neverland,” MJ’s estate hit HBO with a lawsuit saying it had violated a “non-disparagement clause” in a contract dating all the way back to 1992. HBO at the time made a deal to acquire and televise Jackson’s concert around the release of his album “Dangerous.” As THR reported at the time, the 1992 deal included a provision that HBO wouldn’t say anything bad about Jackson and would need to consult with his team if it wanted to air additional programming.
“In those non-disparagement provisions, HBO promised that ‘HBO shall not make any disparaging remarks concerning Performer or any of his representatives, agents, or business practices or do any act that may harm or disparage or cause to lower in esteem the reputation or public image of Performer,’” the complaint from the Jackson estate read. “Other provisions in the Agreement require HBO to notify and consult with Jackson and Optimum Productions if it wishes to air additional programming about Jackson.”
HBO declined to comment to IndieWire about whether that lawsuit specifically prevented it from releasing the new film about Jackson, except to say that the network isn’t involved with the film.
Reed was in the news last year when he accused the upcoming biopic “Michael” about the King of Pop’s life to be a “complete whitewash” of abuse allegations. But according to a recent report, the film had to significantly change and undergo massive reshoots because of a snafu in which the Jackson estate had previously agreed with the family of a separate child molestation accuser to never depict him in a movie. The film had to be delayed for a release this fall.
