Tyler Perry is bringing back the character of his gun-toting grandmother Mabel Madea Simmons for his new Netflix film, A Madea Homecoming.
The 51-year-old actor will write, direct and star in the film which will be the 11th in the franchise. It will be his 12th time portraying the iconic character.
Netflix intends to release the film in 2022, with Perry shooting it entirely at his studio in Atlanta.
The actor took to Twitter to announce the news by dubbing Madea’s voice in a video along with the caption: “She’s back.”
Madea made her big-screen debut in Diary of a Mad Black Woman in 2005, after which the role became the actor’s most popular character.
Perry announced in a 2018 interview that he intended to end the franchise and retire the character after the 2019 film A Madea Family Funeral.
“It’s time for me to kill that old b***h. I’m tired,” he told Sirius XM at that time. “I just don’t want to be her age playing her.”
According to Variety, Perry’s films have earned more than $1bn at the box office.
He said: “When I hear that kind of stuff, I’m thinking, ‘Are y’all looking at the ratings? Do you understand that the audience is in love with this?’”
“Because if you’re complaining about my writing, you’re not the audience. My audience loves the way that it’s done and the way the stories are told. And from the beginning, it’s always been about being true to them,” he said.
Apart from Madea, Perry has also starred in the films Star Trek, Alex Cross, Gone Girl, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, and Vice.
He was included in the Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
He released A Fall From Grace on Netflix in 2020, which was seen by 39 million people in its first month on the streaming platform.
