Lionsgate is aiming to start production on the Michael sequel toward the end of this year or early next year, Adam Fogelson said on a Q1 call, putting fresh timing around one of the studio’s biggest follow-ups. He also said the current thought is that the movie could arrive at the end of calendar ’27 or in the first half of calendar ’28.
That timing is now the main reason the project is back in focus. Michael remains Lionsgate’s highest grossing $1 billion-plus movie, and the sequel is being discussed after substantial footage had already been shot during the first production. For readers looking for the next concrete step, Fogelson’s update is the clearest one yet: the company has a production window, a release window, and still no exact date.
Fogelson said the sequel will likely incorporate previously shot big musical sequences, giving Lionsgate a way to build on work already done rather than start from scratch. He said the studio is focused on delivering the biggest, best sequel at the right price, and added that the audience should get something that matches what they received the first time. Those comments suggest the company is trying to balance scale with cost while leaning on material already in hand.
But Fogelson also made clear that the plan is still incomplete. He said Lionsgate is not ready to announce everything at the moment and would not yet give guidance on the budget. That leaves the release window as an estimate, not a commitment, even as the studio signals it intends to take advantage of what it already shot.
The business stakes are larger than one sequel. Michael’s release was pushed from November 2025 to the final weekend of April 2026, and the Jackson estate covered $50M of reshoots after one of Michael Jackson’s accusers was included in the script. Fogelson said there is nothing unusual about how profit is shared among participants, and he said Lionsgate judges film profitability on a ten-year cycle, a reminder that the studio is looking well beyond opening weekend. The next marker to watch is whether Lionsgate turns that broad window into an exact production start and a firmer release date.
