The much anticipated biopic Michael, based on the life and times of the king of pop Michael Jackson, has just hit the theatres. With the legend’s real life nephew Jaafar Jackson playing the role of Michael, and Graham King as producer, with director Antoine Fuqua, the film opened to much excitement and acclaim. Notably, this year much like 2025, is going to be another year characterised by biopic releases.
Oscar winner Graham King, producer of the Queen (American rock band) biopic Bohemian Rhapsody (with its focus on lead singer Freddie Mercury, played by Rami Malek) announced in 2019 that he was about to begin a similar venture for a biopic on Michael Jackson.
Although the renewed discourse on the Epstein files did impact the publicity of the film, given Michael Jackson’s known history with child sexual abuse, the anticipation as well as reactions to the pre-release premiere last week garnered just as much attention as expected, especially after the lengthy wait audiences had to endure for the release. The film was meant to release in October of 2025, but was postponed to April of 2026 due to post-production delays.
As recently as last week, Lorne, another documentary film about the creator of renowned television show Saturday Night Live released in theatres in the USA, which, according to audiences, answered many burning questions about the inner workings of the show, and its writers — past, present and future. The biopic I Swear based on Scottish activist John Davidson who suffered from Tourette’s Syndrome, released in the UK in October last year, and saw its global premiere this last week. Actor Robert Aramayo also won a Golden Globe for the portrayal of his role as Davidson in this film.
Also highly awaited is Young Washington, a film slated to release in July on the life of the American founding father George Washington. The film explores Washington’s origin story, and how he lent to the formation of the United States of America. Much like Michael is not the first film being made on the life and works of the king of pop, The Social Reckoning, a second film about the work and achievements of Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta and founder of Facebook, is also in the making.
The first was The Social Network released in 2010, with The Social Reckoning being advertised as a sequel. While the cast is almost entirely fresh, renowned screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (writer of The West Wing and The Newsroom among others), who wrote the first film, has been attached with the project to write and direct this sequel.
With the previous film having become an audience favourite, and a star-studded cast of Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, and Rooney Mara, the cast and crew of the sequel, which includes Jeremy Allen White, Mikey Madison and Jeremy Strong as Zuckerberg, with Sorkin directing, has also attracted ample attention from the media.
Another classic actor is about to be memorialised in film, in a biopic about Sylvester Stallone of the Rocky series and Rambo fame. The biopic, titled I Pay Rocky, is scheduled to be released in November. Similarly, musical legend Peter Asher and American 90s actor Jimmy Stewart are getting their own biopics, titled Jimmy and Peter Asher–Everywhere Man, slated to release later this year.
Another biographical drama that has people excited is Madden, based on the life of American footballer and coach John Madden, who will be played by Nicholas Cage. The film will also feature Christian Bale, Sienna Miller, Katherine Hahn and Will Ferrell in supporting roles — a mammoth cast indeed.