A chilling trailer for a sequel to the Michael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland has been released.
Following the two-part documentary from 2019, a follow-up film, subtitled Surviving Michael Jackson, is set to air on Channel 4 later this month.
It will return to the stories of Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who accused the King of Pop of sexually abusing them when they were minors.
Jackson, who died in 2009 at the age of 50, denied the allegations while alive, and his family have continued to deny them after this death.
‘Pursuing this was the act of fighting back,’ Safechuck begins in the trailer. ‘People must have known.’
Robson adds: ‘There was knowledge that there was something weird going on.’
Leaving Neverland first aired in 2019 (Picture: JM Enternational/REX/Shutterstock)
‘It’s draining to go through this over and over again,’ Safechuck continues, while another person is heard saying: ‘Michael Jackson got away with this for a long time.
‘Paedophiles don’t operate in a vacuum, especially successful ones.’
‘I want my day in court,’ Robson adds.
In the first documentary, Robson and Safechuck accused Jackson of sexually abusing them when they were aged around seven and ten years old.
James Safechuck is one of the accusers claiming Michael sexually abused him (Picture: HBO)
Several viewers expressed their shock and outrage at the graphic descriptions of the alleged abuse both men suffered as children, while they were travelling and staying with Jackson at his Neverland Ranch.
After the reaction to Leaving Neverland, director Dan Reed hit back at theories saying Jackson’s abusers were lying for monetary gain.
He wrote for a piece in The Guardian: ‘In 2013, Wade (joined later by James in a separate, but similar case) launched a lawsuit against Jackson’s estate, claiming that Jackson’s business associates knew he was molesting little boys but turned a blind eye.
‘Their cases were dismissed on technical grounds, but the judge made no ruling on the validity of the abuse claims. The cases have both gone to appeal.’
Wade Robson revealed the alleged abuse he’d suffered as a child in Leaving Neverland (Picture: Channel 4/Pro Co)
In response to people questioning where cash would come from, he continued: ‘The answer is that Wade and James would have to win it in a hotly contested court battle.
‘A jury would have to weigh up evidence – of which there is plenty – and decide that their claims were valid. And damages would then be awarded against the Jackson estate. Some people would call that justice.
‘The most extraordinary thing in all this is that no-one denies that Jackson took little boys to his bed, night after night, for many, many years. What did his family and business associates think he was doing with these little boys behind a locked door?
‘Did they believe he was actually a child in the body of a man and therefore somehow needed to sleep with little boys? That makes no sense if you think about it for more than a second.’
Leaving Neverland 2: Surviving Michael Jackson will air on Channel 4 on March 18 at 9pm.
Acquitted of molesting
Jackson and his estate have denied the allegations and they were never proved.
In 2005, Jackson was acquitted of molesting a 13-year-old boy following a high-profile trial. He had been accused of abusing Gavin Arviso, conspiring to kidnap him and his family and giving him alcohol, but was found not guilty of all charges following a four-month trial.
During that trial, Robson – a choreographer who danced on Jackson’s tours as a child – had defended Jackson, but Reed also addressed this, saying: ‘Wade states in my film that he had perjured himself because he could not bear to see Jackson, the man he loved, go to jail.
‘Telling the truth was out of the question. He had never told a soul, not even his mother. So the Jackson camp now call him an admitted liar. This argument falls apart when you apply even the merest dusting of common sense. Was he lying then? Or is he lying now? You can’t have it both ways.’
Robson and Safechuck also previously responded to the claims they were lying, saying they had received no money for the original documentary and that it was about ‘fighting back’.
Robson said: ‘But the reason for me to tell it now, the reason to do this film, is so much bigger than Michael. It’s so much bigger than me and James.
‘It’s an old argument that they’ve used. They say it’s just about the money.
‘For me, the lawsuit was about fighting back for little James. You know, nobody fought for me as a kid. But I’m old enough now to fight for myself.’
In 2023, it was reported a judge would revisit the allegations made by Robson and Safechuck after they were dismissed in 2021, when it was ruled that two of Jackson’s companies, MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures, had no legal duty to protect them.
Michael Jackson estate’s statement on Leaving Neverland
‘Leaving Neverland isn’t a documentary, it is the kind of tabloid character assassination Michael Jackson endured in life, and now in death. The film takes uncorroborated allegations that supposedly happened 20 years ago and treats them as fact.
These claims were the basis of lawsuits filed by these two admitted liars which were ultimately dismissed by a judge. The two accusers testified under oath that these events never occurred. They have provided no independent evidence and absolutely no proof in support of their accusations, which means the entire film hinges solely on the word of two perjurers.
‘Tellingly, the director admitted at the Sundance Film Festival that he limited his interviews only to these accusers and their families. In doing so, he intentionally avoided interviewing numerous people over the years who spent significant time with Michael Jackson and have unambiguously stated that he treated children with respect and did nothing hurtful to them.
By choosing not to include any of these independent voices who might challenge the narrative that he was determined to sell, the director neglected fact checking so he could craft a narrative so blatantly one-sided that viewers never get anything close to a balanced portrait.
‘For 20 years, Wade Robson denied in court and in numerous interviews, including after Michael passed, that he was a victim and stated he was grateful for everything Michael had done for him. His family benefitted from Michael’s kindness, generosity and career support up until Michael’s death.
Conveniently left out of Leaving Neverland was the fact that when Robson was denied a role in a Michael Jackson themed Cirque du Soleil production, his assault allegations suddenly emerged.
‘We are extremely sympathetic to any legitimate victim of child abuse. This film, however, does those victims a disservice. Because despite all the disingenuous denials made that this is not about money, it has always been about money – millions of dollars — dating back to 2013 when both Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who share the same law firm, launched their unsuccessful claims against Michael’s Estate.
Now that Michael is no longer here to defend himself, Robson, Safechuck and their lawyers continue their efforts to achieve notoriety and a payday by smearing him with the same allegations a jury found him innocent of when he was alive.’