Michael Sequel: 5 Best Michael Jackson Songs the Movie Must Include, Ranked

Lionsgate is not waiting around. Speaking on an earnings call this week, motion picture chief Adam Fogelson said the studio wants cameras rolling on the Michael sequel by late 2026 or early 2027, aiming for a release in late 2027 or early 2028 (via Deadline).

Antoine Fuqua‘s Michael has grossed $1.021 billion against a $155 million budget, becoming the first biopic ever to cross a billion. Fuqua also cut a large chunk of the film’s third act during production. Fogelson confirmed that several big musical sequences already shot are almost certain to turn up in the follow-up. The first movie stopped at the 1987 Bad tour. Here are five songs the sequel simply cannot skip.

5 You Are Not Alone

Released on July 28, 1995, as the second single from HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I, it made history immediately by becoming the first song ever to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. On record, You Are Not Alone is a straightforward ballad carried entirely by Jackson’s vocals.

However, Jackson’s live rendition made it something else. Its debut at the 1995 MTV VMAs and the later Munich shows on the HIStory tour turned the song into full theater, complete with lighting designed to isolate him on stage. A sequel covering the mid-90s needs at least one moment of stillness. And this song is it.

4 Earth Song

Few Jackson performances have been argued about as much as this one. Released as a single in late 1995 and lifted from the same HIStory album, Earth Song was his most openly political record. It was a plea about war, poverty, and environmental collapse built around a gospel-scale climax.

At the 1996 Brit Awards, staged at London’s Earls Court, Jackson built a small world around it. Images of ecological damage played behind him while he stood among dancers representing the wounded and the displaced. It would be awesome imagery to include in Jaafar Jackson‘s sequel.

3 Smooth Criminal

Antoine Fuqua’s team has plenty to work with here. Originally a Bad album track issued as a single in late 1988, the song came with a short film built around a 1930s dance-hall setting, later folded into Moonwalker. The making of that video alone could fill a sequence.

But the real prize is Bucharest, October 1992. Performing on the Dangerous World Tour before a stadium crowd, Jackson and his dancers pulled off the anti-gravity lean live. There was no wirework or special effects, despite what viewers had previously suspected—only a patented shoe design that hooked into pegs rising from the stage floor. The audience went crazy for this Smooth Criminal performance.

2 Man in the Mirror

Michael never used this iconic song that went out as a single in January 1988 after being released as part of the Bad album. That makes it the perfect opening for a sequel. On March 2, 1988, Jackson performed it at the Grammy Awards in a staging by choreographer Vincent Paterson, leading the Andraé Crouch Choir with those huge sweeping arm gestures and ending on his knees.

There were no grand settings or illusions. Jackson drove the performance through pure conviction. And the song’s central idea, that change starts with yourself, is the cleanest possible statement of what Jackson believed he was doing.

1 Dangerous

The title track of the album that arrived in November 1991 was never one of Jackson’s biggest singles, but on stage it became his hardest-hitting number. The choreography is dense, fast, and unforgiving, full of sharp stops that leave nowhere to hide.

It also became a remarkable performance at the 1995 VMAs at Radio City Music Hall. Jackson had already torn through a fifteen-minute medley, performing numbers like Billie Jean, Beat It, and Black or White with Slash. Then, he launched straight into Dangerous with no break at all. If the sequel needs one sequence to prove why people called him the greatest performer alive, this is the one.

Two more songs came close. Jackson opened the 1993 Super Bowl halftime show with Jam, an explosive start that eventually gave way to a massed children’s chorus joining him on Heal the World. This performance is often credited with turning the halftime slot into the event it is today. And it serves as a great sequence for a sequel.

Which Michael Jackson song do you most want to see in the sequel? Let us know in the comments.