Overview
- Netflix released the trailer on Wednesday, May 20, and announced that Michael Jackson: The Verdict will premiere globally on June 3 as a three-part, 50-minute-episode documentary.
- The series frames itself as a courtroom reconstruction that relies on new, exclusive interviews with jurors, eyewitnesses, accusers, defense attorneys and media figures who covered the case.
- Filmed by Candle True Stories, the project is directed by Nick Green with David Herman as showrunner and Fiona Stourton and James Goldston among the executive producers.
- Observers and social media users noted the timing of the trailer release while Antoine Fuqua’s biopic Michael remains in theaters and have criticized Netflix for appearing to capitalize on renewed public attention.
- The show revisits events that ended with Jackson’s 2005 acquittal and follows a lineage of contentious portrayals, including HBO’s Leaving Neverland, while signaling it may cover legal history that the recent biopic omitted.