What Happened to the Emmy-Winning Michael Jackson Doc ‘Leaving Neverland’?

On March 3, 2019, HBO released the first part of Leaving Neverland, a documentary chronicling legendary pop star Michael Jackson’s alleged history of child sex abuse. The two-part doc, directed by Dan Reed and focusing on alleged victims Wade Robson and James Safechuck, was a big success for the network, drawing millions of viewers and winning the Emmy for best documentary or nonfiction special. But six years later, you’d never know it: Leaving Neverland has been removed from HBO’s Max platform.

On March 18, 2025, Reed released a follow-up documentary, Leaving Neverland 2, that tracks Robson and Safechuck’s lengthy legal battle against the Jackson estate. But rather than airing on a prestige network like HBO or a streamer like Netflix, Leaving Neverland 2 has been released for free on YouTube. (In Reed’s native UK, it debuted on Channel 4, which previously aired the original doc.) This wasn’t entirely by choice. “I would have loved to release this with HBO,” Reed told Variety in a piece published on March 18. “That wasn’t possible.” But why wasn’t it?

The short answer? Lawyers. Ahead of Leaving Neverland’s 2019 release, Jackson’s estate sued HBO for $100 million, claiming the network had violated the nondisparagement clause in an agreement it had made in 1992 so that it could air Michael Jackson in Concert in Bucharest: The Dangerous Tour. The suit also alleged that Robson and Safechuck were financially motivated to participate in Leaving Neverland, with a lawyer claiming that Reed’s documentary was biased toward the alleged victims. (Reed has said that Robson and Safechuck were not paid for their participation in the project.) “HBO and the director were well aware of their financial motives and that ample opposing facts are available from numerous sources, but made the unconscionable decision to bury any evidence casting doubt on their chosen narrative,” Jackson estate attorney Howard Weitzman said in a statement to Variety at the time. “Had they made an objective film, it would have allowed viewers to make up their own minds about these allegations, instead of having a television network dictate to them that they must accept these false claims about Michael Jackson.”

The suit was reportedly settled in 2024. And according to Puck’s Matthew Belloni, the settlement agreement included the removal of Leaving Neverland from Max, HBO’s streaming platform. In his newsletter, Belloni described the platform’s removal of Leaving Neverland as “a big win for the estate,” adding that an HBO rep told him that the suit had been “amicably resolved.” (Vanity Fair has reached out to HBO for comment.)

With Leaving Neverland scrubbed from Max, it became unlikely that Reed’s 53-minute follow-up would land on the platform. “Clearly, it’s related to the lawsuit or the arbitration dispute,” Reed told Variety. “But HBO don’t call me up and say, ‘Hey, this is what’s happening with that case.’ It all happens under wraps, so I don’t know.” Although this method of distribution wasn’t his first choice, Reed seems optimistic about his sequel airing on YouTube. “It feels as though maybe the world of streaming is more cautious [about] tricky subjects, political subjects, subjects that put people’s teeth on edge and make them upset,” Reed told Deadline. “In order not to strike the wrong note with such a vast subscribership, you can’t really afford to do anything that isn’t absolutely safe.” As of this writing, Leaving Neverland 2 has more than 32,000 views on the platform.

Despite the drama with HBO, Reed is undeterred from his mission to tell Robson’s and Safechuck’s stories—no matter what platform his work ultimately lands on. “The intention is to follow the stories until the end,” he told Deadline. Reed told Variety that he intends for Leaving Neverland to be a trilogy, with the final chapter covering Safechuck and Robson’s combined trial against two of Jackson’s companies, reportedly scheduled for November 2026.

While Reed told Variety earlier this month that he believed the Jackson estate would “find a way to try and sideswipe this whole thing and make sure it never goes to court,” the filmmaker also expressed hope that Robson and Safechuck would get their day in court. “Maybe justice will prevail and there’ll be a trial,” he added. “And if there is a trial, I want to be there.” Reed’s even holding on to the possibility that HBO might air the third part of the series, cryptically noting to Deadline that the network has a 10-year licensing agreement for the first documentary: “We look forward to one day renewing our collaboration on this theme.”