Michael Jackson’s story ends in 1988 in the biopic, Michael, the box-office hit that once again is the Number One movie in the United States. Now a new, three-part Netflix docuseries will continue the story of the King of Pop.
Michael Jackson: The Verdict, which premieres June 3, will reexamine Jackson’s 2005 trial for child molestation. Talking heads for the docuseries include jurors, eyewitnesses, accusers, and Jackson’s defenders. The film, directed by Nick Green, will look at both sides of the trial, the prosecution’s and Jackson’s defense, all leading to Jackson’s acquittal. A trailer for the docuseries begins with footage of Jackson’s home. “We believed he was a criminal, and he was able to get away with it because of his fame and celebrity,” says one of the interviewees.
Rolling Stone published a timeline of the allegations against Jackson. In 1993, the Los Angeles Police Department launched an investigation into Jackson based on allegations made by Jordan Chandler, who was 13 when he met Jackson. Although grand juries declined to indict Jackson on those allegations the following year, the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department launched a new investigation in 2003, which led to the 2005 trial.
“It has been 20 years since the trial of Michael Jackson in which he was found not guilty. Yet, to this day, controversy still rages,” Green and producer Fiona Stourton said in a statement, published on Netflix’s Tudum. “No cameras were allowed in court, and so the public’s view of the facts at the time were filtered by commentators and presented piecemeal. It was time to take a forensic look at the trial as a whole.”
Witnesses for the prosecution included several boys who alleged that Jackson had molested him. Meanwhile, the defense called on Macaulay Culkin, Jay Leno, George Lopez, and Chris Tucker, among others, to testify to his character. The jury reached a verdict on June 13, 2005.
The documentary could fill a void left by Leaving Neverland, a documentary that focused on two men who accused Jackson of molesting them when they were children; the doc is no longer on HBO. And it also addresses Chandler’s story, which was left out of Michael, because filmmakers learned including it would violate a $20 million settlement Jackson paid in 1994. Jackson, who died in 2009, repeatedly denied Chandler’s accusations, as well as those levied by other boys.
