As much as you can’t fault Tyler Perry for cementing himself as not just a multimedia mogul but a virtually self-made billionaire, it would be nice were he to stick to his word and allow the Madea franchise to stay retired.
Obviously, the character is arguably his most famous creation by far, and you can’t argue with the brand’s success in terms of both longevity, quantity, and consistent earning power. As well as headlining 11 stage plays and an animated feature, the boisterous grandmother has also popped up several TV shows as a guest star, not to mention the 11 theatrically-released features films that combined to earn north of $550 million at the box office.
Perry claimed she was retired for good following 2019’s A Madea Family Funeral, but his mind changed fairly quickly when Netflix reversed a dump truck full of cash up to his palatial estate, which yielded last year’s A Madea Homecoming. There’s definitely a fandom desperate for more, but seeing as 11 of the 12 movies to date have only scored between four and 38 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, the law of diminishing returns doesn’t even begin to cover it.
And yet, What’s on Netflix is claiming that not just one, but two new Madea adventures could be in store for the streaming service, which is a terrifying prospect. That being said, there’s one option on the table that everybody could get on board with, the downside being that it’s never going to happen.
Keanu Reeves revealed that he’d love to see John Wick cross over with Madea, which is something we can all agree would give it an instant pass.