Michael Jackson fan 'cult' will never believe sexual assault claims
'Leaving Neverland' director Dan Reed has insisted he didn't set out to "knock Michael Jackson off his pedestal" by detailing allegations of sexual assault from Wade Robson and James Safechuck.
'Leaving Neverland' director Dan Reed fears Michael Jackson's fan base "cult" will never believe sexual assault allegations against their hero.
Reed detailed Wade Robson and James Safechuck's allegations of sexual abuse by the King of Pop in the original 2019 documentary and he's continued their story in a second film - 'Leaving Neverland 2: Surviving Michael Jackson' - which premiered in the UK on Tuesday night (18.03.25) - and Reed has now insisted he worries the late singer's devoted fans will never change their minds.
He told Variety: "Look, the true believers are always going to be true believers. You could show them a video of Jackson molesting a child and there’s no amount of evidence that would suffice to change what’s almost a religious view. They’re part of a cult. And I really don’t expect people to stop listening to Michael Jackson’s music."
Jackson was acquitted of child molestation charges following a trial in 2005 and he always denied claims of inappropriate behaviour prior to his death in 2009. Representatives of his estate have continued to deny claims of sexual abuse following the singer's passing.
Reed went on to insist he didn't set out to knock the singer "off his pedestal" - he just wanted to tell Robson and Safechuck's stories.
The moviemaker added: "To be honest, from my point of view, this is a small story. It’s a story about two young men who set out to expose something bad that had been done to them when they were little children and it blew up into something much bigger than we thought.
"My quite narrow goal is to continue to faithfully depict what happened to these young men on their journey. I would like people to be aware of how difficult it is to get in front of a jury.
"I would like people to continue to take an interest in how child sexual abuse actually unfolds as opposed to all the sort of fictions and popular myths about it. And if I achieve that, then I’m happy, to be honest.
"My goal is not to knock Jackson off his pedestal - it never has been. There have been moments where it maybe looked that way, but as I sit here thinking about the film and what I’m excited about, it’s really to just tell the story of these two guys and to try and tell it to the end."
