EW breaks down fact versus fiction in Antoine Fuqua’s musical biopic about the King of Pop.

*Michael *fact vs. fiction: Peter Pan, the Pepsi incident, and Michael Jackson’s relationship with his dad

EW breaks down fact versus fiction in Antoine Fuqua's musical biopic about the King of Pop.

By Shania Russell

Shania Russell

Shania Russell is a news writer at *, *with five years of experience. Her work has previously appeared in SlashFilm and Paste Magazine.

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April 24, 2026 3:00 p.m. ET

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Jaafar Jackson as Michael Jackson in 'Michael'. Credit:

Courtesy of Lionsgate

- The long-awaited Michael Jackson biopic is already being criticized for its handling of the singer's legacy.

- EW is exploring fact versus fiction in the controversial film.

- Does Michael nail the details about the singer's relationship with his father? And what really happened while filming the 1984 Pepsi commercial?

When it comes to grappling with the truth, *Michael* is already in murky territory.

The long-awaited Michael Jackson biopic from director Antoine Fuqua has endured a troubled road to the big screen, with critics wondering how the project would handle the singer's complicated legacy and numerous allegations of child sex abuse.

Long before audiences would see a glimpse of the film, *Leaving Neverland *director Dan Reed slammed the script as a "complete whitewash" of Jackson's complicated legacy. Then, production hit a serious roadblock, reportedly requiring reshoots due to a clause in the singer's settlement with Jackson's accuser, Jordan Chandler.

But thanks to its timeline, *Michael* never actually gets around to addressing those allegations, as the film focuses on the early years of Jackson's career and ultimately concludes in the late '80s. But how much truth is there to the details that *are* presented about Michael's rise to fame?

Below, ** explores several key points raised in *Michael* and the reality of the man behind the pop culture icon.

Lying about his age

Judah Edwards as Young Tito, Jaylen Hunter as Young Marlon, Juliano Krue Valdi as Young MJ, Nathaniel McIntyre as Young Jackie and Jayden Harville as Young Jermaine in 'Michael'.

Glen Wilson/Lionsgate

Jackson was 10 when the Jackson 5 signed with Motown Records, the company that would help them produce hits such as "I Want You Back" and "ABC." But when the group was introduced to the world one year later, it was fronted by an "eight-year-old" prodigy.

In that, Michael wasn't alone. All 5 boys — Michael, 11, Marlon, 12, Jermaine, 14, Tito, 15, and Jackie, 17 — had two years shaved off their ages to emphasize the image that Motown wanted to present: five talented wunderkinds singing years beyond their ages.

Michael later reflected on this white lie to biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli, who penned *Michael Jackson – The Magic and the Madness.*

"I figured out at an early age that if someone said something about me that wasn't true, it was a lie," Jackson said. "But if someone said something about my image that wasn't true, then it was okay. Because then it wasn't a lie, it was public relations."

Michael’s complicated relationship with dad Joe Jackson

Michael Jackson and his father Joseph Jackson onMarch 8, 2005 in Santa Maria, California.

Kimberly White-Pool/Getty

As the biopic explores, Michael famously had a fraught relationship with his father, Joe Jackson, who served an all-in-one role as patriarch, coach, drill sergeant, and manager to his children. Joe not only encouraged his children to pursue careers in the entertainment biz but also enforced long, intense rehearsal sessions, coaching them to hone their skills.

In numerous interviews before his 2009 death, Michael outlined troubling childhood incidents with his father, often involving physical abuse. In the 2003 Martin Bashir documentary, *Living With Michael Jackson*, the "Thriller" singer opened up about enduring beatings from his father, who believed in using corporal punishment. Michael claimed his father sometimes watched the brothers rehearse with a belt in hand, as a threat against making mistakes.

Asked by Bashir how often Joe hit him, the singer replied, "Too much." he added, "[He'd] throw you up against the wall as hard as you could. He would lose his temper… I was so fast, he couldn't catch me half the time. But when he would catch me? It was bad. It was really bad."

As these stories emerged, Joe (who died in 2018) insisted he had no regrets over using physical punishment, telling Oprah Winfrey in 2010, "I'm glad I was tough, because look what I came out with."

As for Michael, the singer did publicly express gratitude for his father, including during an emotional conversation with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (via PEOPLE), where he noted, "God bless my father because he did some wonderful things and he was brilliant. He was a genius."

That said, Michael was not particularly close with Joseph in his later years, and, per CBS, Joseph Jackson was omitted from his son's will, with all of Michael's assets going to his mother, his children, and various children's charities.

Firing Joe via fax

Colman Domingo in 'Michael'.

Courtesy of Lionsgate

In the film, Michael severs professional ties with his father pretty quickly after coming into his own as a solo artist. He finds new representation in Miles Teller's John Branca, and as his first request, asks his new manager to fire his dad.

According to Taraborrelli, who chronicled the singer's life in a 1991 biography, the dramatization wasn't too far off from reality. Taraborrelli wrote that Michael had Branca draw up official documents informing Joseph that his managerial services would no longer be required.

Michael, who lived with his family, stayed out of the house while the documents were delivered by messenger, waiting for his father to absorb the news. When they finally met to discuss the matter, Michael brought along an adviser so that he wouldn't have to be alone with Joe.

Summing it up, Jackson told Taraborrelli, "It's not easy firing your father."

Afterward, Michael's brothers followed suit, firing Joseph as the manager of the Jackson 5 (renamed the Jacksons) just four years later.

Michael’s monkey, giraffe, snake and general love of animals

Michael Jackson and Bubbles having tea in Osaka, Japan in 1987.

Sankei Archive via Getty

By the height of his career, Michael had garnered quite the reputation as an eccentric — a perception fueled by his collection of exotic pets. Just as the biopic shows, Michael adopted several animals that wouldn't typically be considered pet material. He owned a python, a llama, four giraffes, two tigers, flamingos, a parrot, a boa constrictor, and most notably, a chimpanzee named Bubbles.

While several of the exotic pets resided on the singer's California Ranch, Bubbles spent much of his time in Michael's close company. He was often photographed out and about, at music video shoots, parties, and occasionally at events. When the chimpanzee matured and was no longer a suitable pet, he was moved to a Florida primate sanctuary, where he resides to this day.

Michael’s obsession with Peter Pan

Jaafar Jackson in 'Michael'.

Jackson's affinity for Peter Pan was well-documented. After purchasing his 2,700-acre Sycamore Valley Ranch, Jackson famously renamed the property Neverland, an homage to Never-Never Land, the fantasy setting of the story about a boy who never ages. To capture the feeling of never growing up, Jackson also turned the property into a private amusement park.

Later, Michael penned a song titled "Peter Pan," which he recorded but never released. He did treat fans to an a cappella version, though, singing a snippet of the track during an interview.

The ‘Beat It’ dance session with two L.A. gangs

The 1983 music video for "Beat It" cast Michael Jackson as a peacemaker, using dance to quell a dispute between two rival gangs. Looking to infuse the video with authenticity — and perhaps put his peacemaker persona to real-life use — the singer really did recruit members of Los Angeles' Crips and Bloods to dance in the video.

Bob Giraldi, who wrote and directed the video, said this idea was 100 percent Michael's in a 2009 interview.

"He went out, and he got 'em through, I guess, the LAPD's gang squad, and he convinced them that, with enough police presence, this would be a smart and charitable thing to do," Giraldi shared. "I didn't like the idea because it was hard enough to direct actors and dancers."

But Michael insisted and, according to Giraldi, hoped he could get them to "like each other" if they hung out on set. While the final product speaks for itself, Giraldi said the shoot was a challenge from the start. He claimed that the production was "almost shut down the first night" because "film sets get to be very boring after the first hour."

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"I guess the Crips and Bloods started to get on each other's nerves — they are mortal enemies — and we had a few incidents," he recalled. "Two cops came to me and said they wanted to close it down."

Giraldi said he managed to convince the officers to let him jump right to shooting the dance sequence, where it all finally came together.

"The gang members couldn't dance, so they formed the ring and watched," he recalled. "I remember looking at the faces of all the Crips and Bloods lined up and their expressions as they listened to that music and watched those kids dance… [They] had that look like, 'You know what? With all our wars and vendettas and stuff, that's cool right there. That's something we'll never be able to do.' And that's what made that evening work."

The Pepsi hair incident

Jaafar Jackson and KeiLyn Durrel Jones in 'Michael'.

Glen Wilson/Lionsgate

Michael was 25 and at the pinnacle of his career when he joined his brothers for a Pepsi commercial in January 1984.

The ad, which was part of a multi-million-dollar endorsement deal with PepsiCo, was filmed before a live studio audience that witnessed a pyrotechnics malfunction shower the superstar in sparks, prompting his heavily gelled hair to catch fire.

Recounting the incident, per the* **Los Angeles Times*, Jackson's longtime hair and makeup artist, Karen Faye, said he continued dancing down the stairs, not initially realizing he was on fire. After a friend of the singer's rushed the stage and wrestled him to the ground to put the fire out, Faye recalled, "All his hair was gone, and there was smoke coming out of his head."

Jackson was taken to the hospital, where he was treated for severe second and third-degree burns to his scalp, per the BBC. He was eventually sent home with opioids to help with pain management. Footage of the incident was featured in the 2026 TMZ documentary, *Michael Jackson: 30 Fatal Seconds*, which offered an in-depth look at the shocking incident and argued that it was the impetus for Jackson's self-image issues, drug abuse, and eventual fatal overdose in 2009.

Jackson family lawyer Brian Panish said in the doc, "He underwent extensive plastic surgery, skin grafting, where they took skin from another part of his body to fix the areas that were damaged. He had severe pain, he had debilitating pain, he had neuropathic pain, which is nerve pain in the scalp. The pain led to anxiety, it led to really, most importantly, loss of sleep. The pain, the inability to sleep, causes the pain to be worse."

As for PepsiCo, Jackson declined to sue, and the two parties reached an out-of-court settlement for $1.5 million, which was donated to the Brotman Medical Center to establish a burn center in his name.

Leaving the Jackson 5

Judah Edwards as Young Tito, Jaylen Hunter as Young Marlon, Juliano Krue Valdi as Young MJ, Nathaniel McIntyre as Young Jackie and Jayden Harville as Young Jermaine in 'Michael'.

Courtesy of Lionsgate

Seven months after the Pepsi fire, the Jacksons kicked off their Victory Tour. It came to a close at Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium in December 1984, marking the end of an era for Michael and his brothers. It was indeed during the final show that Michael solidified his departure from the group, announcing that it would be their last performance together. But several biographers have noted that the idea had been percolating for months if not years, as Jackson enjoyed success in his solo career and sought to break away from the group.

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