Michael Mania is Back, the Fans Are Buzzing and the Merch Is Still Shit!

It will come as no surprise that I am excited for this film.

Not calm, measured, sensible excitement either.

Proper fan excitement. The sort where you tell yourself you're just going to watch a one-minute teaser one more time and suddenly it's half four in the morning, you're 73 YouTube reactions deep, and a man from Ohio smiling over a 60-second soundtrack clip has somehow become part of your life now.

When that very first Michael movie teaser dropped in early November, I was finished.

No sleep. No peace. No dignity.

Just me replaying that one-minute clip like it was life support and thinking, finally. Finally, the estate may have got this right. Finally, we might just be getting that full-blown Michael mania energy back.

And to be fair, the Michael mania? Oh, that part has definitely happened.

You can feel it now.

The buzz is everywhere. The PopCrown feed is full of people asking what everyone's wearing, what their plans are, who's going opening night, whether this calls for sparkle, a military jacket, or just full emotional instability with nice boots and a fedora.

It's glorious.

And after years of tabloids, smug sneering, and that constant "why isn't he cancelled yet?" tone from people who know absolutely fuck all, it feels so good seeing fans loud for something good again. Excited again. Slightly unbearable again.

As they should be.

We've earned this.

Fans have worked hard for this moment. Years of defending Michael, correcting rubbish, dragging facts into conversations with people who think a documentary is the same thing as evidence, and still turning up for the art through all of it.

So yes, I am fully behind fans treating movie day like a national event. I intend to proudly be one of them. If people want to approach this like it's a premiere, a reunion and a breakdown all at once, I support that wholeheartedly.

But that tiny moment of delusion I had that dared to even consider the fact that the estate may have finally got it right?

Well, yeah. Forget that.

As usual, this is exactly why the gap between fans and the estate is so wide, and it's my main point of frustration with the film project.

Because when fans create things, you can feel the love all over it. Something the estate just never seems to come close to achieving.

Recently, Kingvention announced this year's venue with a brilliantly executed promo animation. SWG Mixes released their latest respectfully crafted masterpiece in a long line of masterpieces. We had Damien Shields' Thriller and Faking Michael documentary podcasts. The latter taking an incredible 14 years to make. And let's not forget Marcos Cabota's Sonic Fantasy. A documentary about the important role of Bruce Swedien, specifically when it comes to the Thriller album. Without him, Thriller is a very different album yet the general public probably don't even know who he is.

Different projects, same point.

Thoughtful, clever, in-depth, creatively executed by people who actually care about Michael's art and legacy. You can always tell when fans have done something because it feels alive. Fans making remixes that make you hear old songs in a new way. Fans making artwork that understands Michael's visual world better than half the official output ever seems to. Documentaries that deep dive into topics and present fascinating facts you've never heard before.

Fans doing it with care, detail and genuine respect because they actually get why it matters.

Official stuff, on the other hand, can sometimes feel like a last-minute email attachment sent from someone called Clive.

Fans treat Michael's legacy with respect and his art like art.

The estate often treats him like a money-making admin task.

And nowhere is that clearer than the latest teaser rollout for the one-month promo countdown.

That first teaser was perfect. It did exactly what it needed to do. It got everyone excited, gave us just enough, and left people wanting more.

Then we got nothing for what seemed like forever.

Now?

Well, naturally the estate seem to have made the decision that the best way to spend the four week lead-up to the movie release is to show us the rest of the fucking film in 30 second instalments.

Constantly. Every single day. Twice a day if you're lucky.

At this point I'm not even watching them. I'm just sharing them for the benefit of the people who can't get to the cinema so they can piece the whole thing together from my Facebook stories and save themselves the parking.

This is not teasing anymore.

This is just drip-feeding the entire movie while still somehow managing not to cover any of the basic elements of movie promotion... like letting UK fans know the one thing we actually need to know, which is when we can buy a bloody ticket.

They can show us a dramatic look, a dance move, a hallway, a hand on a door handle, half an emotional scene and probably the full ending by Easter, but clear ticket information?

No. That remains classified.

A teaser is supposed to make you curious. It's supposed to build anticipation.

It is not supposed to leave you sitting in the cinema on opening night muttering, "Oh no, not this bit again," like you're checking off your MJ movie teaser bingo card with full awareness that Doris in row 12 will definitely call out "house" before you.

What makes this so much more frustrating is that anticipation was something Michael himself was always consciously creating. It's why he stood still on stage for 10 minutes and let us all scream until he took his glasses off.. and made us all scream again.

The anticipation part is everything.

But, true to form, the estate yet again ignores anything Michael was famous for and goes with, "Just throw out 30 seconds of movie clips on repeat every 5 minutes for a month, that'll do."

Well, John, it won't "do". And it's royally pissing us off.

Then there's the soundtrack.

Christ alive. I'm gonna need a minute here.

That first teaser music had fans frothing. For once, the whole fanbase wanted the same thing. No arguments. No stupid divisions. Just one shared feeling.

We could not WAIT for that soundtrack album. Those beats and that piano segment?? Oh my God. TAKE MY MONEY!

Fans all had the same wish...

Please, PLEASE... don't fuck this up.

So, of course, they fucked it up.

We got the same songs, in the same versions, that we've all owned since birth in roughly 278 different formats.

Honestly, some of us have bought these tracks so many times we should qualify for a pension from the estate and occasional access to the family group chat.

After all that excitement, all that build-up, they basically turned round and went, surprise, it's the exact same version of all the songs you already own, but we've called it a soundtrack album and whacked a massive price tag on it.

That is such estate behaviour.

Take the one thing fans are genuinely excited about, then deliver the least imaginative version possible and act like you've done us all a favour.

Which brings me to the merch, where the jokes honestly start to write themselves.

The estate is very quick to shut down unofficial merch, isn't it?

Oh, they're alert then.

A fan makes something gorgeous and suddenly everybody in the office remembers their password. Suddenly there's movement, urgency and someone pretends standards matter.

Meanwhile, the official merch often looks like it was designed by somebody whose main qualification was standing near a printer.

Oh wait, it was.

This is why unofficial stuff needs to exist in the first place.

That's not rebellion. That's a public service.

If the estate was putting out thoughtful, beautiful, imaginative merch that actually reflected Michael's artistry, fans would not have to keep making better things in their spare room at 11pm, fuelled by caffeine and spite.

But here we are.

And the maddest part is the talent in the fan base is ridiculous.

Not "aww that's nice" ridiculous.

Actual "wow this is incredible" ridiculous.

And a lot of them would probably do it for free.

Which is lovely, but also faintly tragic when you think about the billions involved and the fact the official stuff can still turn up looking like a tax write-off you can wear.

And let's be honest, we all know why the estate won't tap into that fan talent.

It's not because the work wouldn't be good enough.

It's because for five fucking minutes Branca might not get to feel like he's the important part of something.

Let's not forget Michael fired him, which still remains one of the most understandable and funniest things he ever did.

That fact still brings me a sense of comfort. Knowing even Michael eventually thought "You've got to go!"

Because why is he always there?

Frank Dileo can barely get a mention, yet Branca still hangs around every official MJ project like a man waiting to be thanked for that time he gave Michael some paperwork to sign.

He has the energy of someone who ends up in the centre of every wedding photo despite not being related to anyone there.

Fans aren't inventing this. It's been playing out in front of us since 2009.

The half-arsed album anniversaries.

The overdone teasers releases.

The underwhelming, lazy designed merch.

The missed opportunities.

The lack of quality, detail and respect and the astonishing ability to make something luxuriously expensive whilst simultaneously being cheap and shit.

And yet, even with all that, we remain excited. We remain loyal and committed to handing over all of our money with no hesitation.

Because we LOVE anything Michael.

And Michael mania is back.

That's the bit that is keeping my sanity at a functioning level, the bit I keep coming back to.

Fans are loud again. Proud again. Obnoxious again in exactly the right way. After all the years of nonsense, that feels bloody amazing.

So yes, the estate are still being the estate. Still making odd choices. Still missing obvious opportunities. Still moving like a group of people who continue to confuse control with talent and vision. Who remain full of themselves as if being around greatness somehow means they too embody that trait.

But the fans?

The fans are carrying this beautifully.

They're bringing the buzz, the outfits, the plans, the nostalgia, the drama, the emotional over-investment, the full ridiculous glory of it all.

And rightly so.

This moment belongs to them. To us.

Because whatever the estate does or doesn't do, they are not the reason this legacy is alive.

Michael's art, his humanity, his legacy and we, his fans are.

Always have been.

Always will be.

I'm sure the estate appreciate us, even though they continue to mug us off and act like we haven't kept them in a job whilst also doing the job for them.

I'm sure, somewhere in the global postal system, our fan appreciation letters are on their way.

They're likely to arrive in approximately six to nine months.

Much like the overpriced shit merch.