Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed is back in the headlines, and he isn’t mincing his words.
The 61-year-old has been vocal about the new Michael Jackson biopic, Michael. As per his opinion, the film conveniently skips over the child abuse claims that hung over the pop star for decades. He also drew a direct comparison between Jackson and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Reed’s 2019 film put two men front and center. Wade Robson and James Safechuck both alleged that Jackson had sexually abused them as children. According to a report shared by the Daily Mail, the four-hour documentary was a massive critical hit upon its release. Leaving Neverland even took home the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special.
Jackson was never convicted of child abuse or molestation in his lifetime. In Reed’s opinion, that has never been the final word. According to a detailed interview shared by The Hollywood Reporter on April 22, 2026, the director was asked directly about the biopic. He shared that,
“I think Jackson was genuinely a very nasty man and hurt a lot of children. And he may have been a great entertainer, but those two things don’t cancel each other out. The fact is that pedophiles exist, and he was one of them, and he made those choices. Many other people who’ve been abused as a child did not choose to abuse others.”
Dan Reed opens up about why Leaving Neverland quietly disappeared from HBO:
Years have passed since Leaving Neverland first shook audiences. Jackson’s streaming numbers are up. MJ the Musical is a Broadway juggernaut. And Lionsgate’s Michael, a biopic helmed by Training Day director Antoine Fuqua and starring Jaafar Jackson, the late pop star’s own nephew, is tracking to be one of the year’s biggest box-office hits.
Leaving Neverland, meanwhile, has quietly vanished from HBO entirely. According to the detailed interview shared by The Hollywood Reporter, the disappearance followed a legal settlement with the Jackson estate. With Michael now set to open on nearly 4,000 screens, Reed called The Hollywood Reporter from the U.K. to discuss the ethical ramifications behind the blockbuster machinery of music biopics. He didn’t hold back on the HBO situation.
“The Michael Jackson estate had a contract which Jackson had signed with HBO for a concert recording in Budapest in 1992. The contract contained a non-disparagement clause. The estate argued that the non-disparagement clause, which says, ‘You can’t say anything nasty about Michael,’ applied forever to everything that HBO would ever do — which is patently ridiculous,” shared Dan.
He then expanded on how the settlement ultimately played out.
“Somehow the estate managed to persuade HBO to come to an amicable settlement. And that involved, after six years on the platform, taking Leaving Neverland down. HBO has a license only until 2029. So after that, I can resell it and make it available again. The sequel went out on YouTube in the U.S., which is pretty unsatisfying,” added Dan.
Dan Reed calls out fans who don’t care about the allegations shared in Leaving Neverland:
Reed went further and compared Jackson directly to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“So a lot of people, I think, will kind of swallow any misgivings they may have and just sort of say, ‘Oh well, it’s a great jukebox movie’ and just completely ignore the fact that this guy was worse than Jeffrey Epstein,” added Dan.
The Truth vs. Alex Jones director was also asked a question that has puzzled many observers since 2019. Leaving Neverland arrived with an enormous impact. Jackson’s popularity, however, never actually collapsed. Streaming numbers climbed. Fans kept listening. Reed had a candid explanation for that.
“It says that people don’t care that he was a child molester. Literally, people just don’t care,” he said.
He expanded on why the allegations never truly landed with the wider public.
“None of the allegations in Leaving Neverland have been seriously challenged, right? But there was enough noise online from those simplistic debunking videos that people found it easy to give themselves permission to like Michael Jackson’s music again, if they ever stopped liking it.”
“I think a lot of people just love his music and turn a deaf ear. And short of having actual video evidence of Michael Jackson engaged in sexual intercourse with a 7-year-old child, I don’t know what would be sufficient to change these people’s minds,” he added.
Reed was careful to clarify his own position on the matter, drawing a line between criticism and cancellation.
“I’m not trying to stop anyone from consuming his music. I’ve never advocated canceling Michael Jackson. Book burning is for the Middle Ages and the Taliban. I just think if you’re going to enjoy his music, let’s also consider the fact that he liked to have sex with children and see how that affects your enjoyment, in all honesty,” he concluded.
Edited by Nimisha