‘Sopranos’ creator David Chase finally reveals death scene for Tony
Once again, David Chase has given his audience everything and nothing at the same time.
“The Sopranos” and “Many Saints of Newark” creator revealed a cryptic tidbit that gives the show’s blackout ending and fate of James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano in 2007 a bit more context — but you’ll still have to draw your own conclusions.
Speaking with the Hollywood Reporter, Chase confirmed that the show’s iconic Holsten’s last supper was separate from a plan he originally envisioned for the boss’ demise.
“Because the [death] scene I had in my mind was not that scene. Nor did I think of cutting to black,” Chase said.
“I had a scene in which Tony comes back from a meeting in New York in his car. At the beginning of every show, he came from New York into New Jersey, and the last scene could be him coming from New Jersey back into New York for a meeting at which he was going to be killed.”
Chase’s commentary is a follow-up to comments he made in 2018 where the creator spoke of a mysterious “death scene” for Soprano, one previously assumed to have happened over onion rings and ’80s rock in Bloomfield, NJ.
But at the end of the day, that fate is still on the table.
Although Chase didn’t say exactly that Tony ultimately got whacked in Holsten’s, he did confirm it was the setting he had in mind for the don in therapy’s endgame.
“I was driving on Ocean Park Boulevard near the airport and I saw a little restaurant. It was kind of like a shack that served breakfast. And for some reason, I thought, ‘Tony should get it in a place like that.’ Why? I don’t know. That was, like, two years before.”
While we may still not know for sure, “Many Saints” director Alan Taylor is confident that the blackout signifies Soprano’s last note.
“I have to go with Tony’s dead,” he too told the Hollywood Reporter ahead of the film’s release.
Either way, fans who haven’t stopped believing Tony is dead have become irritating to Chase since the conclusion, he said.
“What was annoying was how many people wanted to see Tony killed. They wanted to see him go face-down in linguini, you know? That bothered me.
“And I just thought, ‘God, you watched this guy for seven years and I know he’s a criminal. But don’t tell me you don’t love him in some way, don’t tell me you’re not on his side in some way. And now you want to see him killed? You want justice done? You’re a criminal after watching this s – – t for seven years.’ That bothered me, yeah.”
Chase elaborated on his stance in the newly released book “Woke Up This Morning” by “Sopranos” cast members Michael Imperioli, 55 and Steve Schirripa, 64.
When asked by Schirripa if the show’s end has “a definitive answer,” Chase responded. “No. I really shouldn’t talk about it at all because when I say anything, people interpret it in some way, and then it starts up again. For a long time, I was really upset because that’s all they talked about, they didn’t talk about the rest of the episode.”
