The Weeknd Teases Possible About-Face on Retiring Stage Persona: ‘It Could Also Just Be a Rebirth’

For the past few months, The Weeknd has been teasing that his sixth album and upcoming movie of the same name, Hurry Up Tomorrow, could mark the end of the unpredictable stage character that has taken over singer Abel Tesfaye’s life for more than 15 years. After suggesting to The New York Times recently that the film à clef he wrote, stars in and produced — which eerily matches some of his own career high, and low, points — likely marks his last release as The Weeknd, he told EW that the door is still cracked.

Speaking to the magazine at the recent CinemaCon festival alongside director Trey Edward Shults and co-star Jenna Ortega, Tesfaye said the movie (which opens on Friday) feels like the final nail in the coffin of the complex Weeknd character.

Or, perhaps, it could be the kick-off to a second life?

While he has been adamant that he plans to keep making music, Tesfaye told EW, “It feels like it [the end of the Weeknd]. I mean, I’ve kind of toyed with the idea in the past with albums,” he added, noting that this isn’t he first time he’s considered doing away with his sometimes swaggering, sometimes beat-to-a-pulp alter ego. “But it could also just be a rebirth. Who knows?” he said.

In January, Tesfaye, 35, said that he planned to retire his alter ego following the conclusion of the album trilogy that began with 2020’s After Hours and includes 2022’s Dawn FM and wrapped up with January’s Hurry Up Tomorrow. “It’s a headspace I’ve gotta get into that I just don’t have any more desire for,” he said of his stage name at the time. “You have a persona, but then you have the competition of it all. It becomes this rat race: more accolades, more success, more shows, more albums, more awards and more No. 1s. It never ends until you end it.”

The Weeknd entered the public consciousness in 2011 when he put out the House of Balloons mixtape and worked to keep his face and identity secret at first, finally revealing himself to the wider world at Coachella in 2012. Flash forward billions of streams and four Grammys later and he’s one of the biggest acts on the planet.

The movie was inspired by what should have been a triumphant moment that went sideways. Tesfaye has described becoming undone when he suddenly lost his voice completely during a stadium show in L.A. in 2022. In the film, he plays a fictionalized, insomnia-wrecked version of himself, also named Abel, who is taken on a wild ride by alluring stranger Anima (Ortega).

“I tried to make the movie in a way where, for his fans and people who want to approach it at that level, I hope it’s very satisfying and you get a good meal out of it,” Shults, who co-wrote the psychological thriller’s screenplay with Tesfaye and Reza Fahim told EW in February. The director said that it was an “absolute possibility” that the project would be the Weeknd’s final chapter, adding “And for people that aren’t his fans and don’t know anything about him or even care about the final capping of the Weeknd, I think you still have a great movie to go through.”

This article first appeared on Billboard U.S.