Tyler Perry reveals Madea spoiler
‘You can’t kill off a family member,’ filmmaker explains
Madea fans will be happy to know that Tyler Perry is not killing off the beloved character. The filmmaker revealed on
Today Wednesday that the guntoting grandmother he suits up as survives A Madea Family Fu
neral out Friday. Perry announced he would retire the character last year.
“Listen, I’m turning 50 this year, I don’t want to be her age playing her, OK?” he told anchors Hoda Kotb and Craig Melvin Wednesday.
“It’s been a great run, the franchise has been amazing, and it’s done a lot of things for a lot of people, I think it’s time.”
While Kotb, worried about spoiling the film, skirted around saying Madea is not the one who passes, the filmmaker came right out and confirmed it.
“She doesn’t die,” Perry confirmed. “She’s a family member ... to a lot of people. You can’t kill off a family member.”
Perhaps offering a sliver of hope the character would one day return, he joked: “Maybe she’ll do like Cher and do 10 retirements.”
In October, Perry said he was done with Madea nearly two decades after introducing the role.
“This is it,” Perry told host Bevy Smith on her SiriusXM radio show, Bevelations. “It’s time for me to kill that old (expletive). I’m tired!”
Perry explained on 60 Minutes in 2009, it was the women in his family and those he saw growing up who inspired Madea.
“Madea is a cross between my mother and my aunt,” he shared.
“She’s the type of grandmother that was on every corner when I was growing up. She smoked. She walked out of the house with her curlers and her muumuu and she watched everybody’s kids. She didn’t take no crap.
“She’s a strong figure where I come from. In my part of the African-American community,” he continued.
“And I say that because I’m sure that there are some other parts of the African-American community that may be looking at me now going, ‘Who does he think he’s speaking of?’ But, for me, this woman was very, very visible.”