The Sopranos Questions That The Many Saints of Newark Can Answer
If the pandemic was good for something, it was giving folks time to catch up on or get reacquainted with the best television series from the modern era. Are you someone who promised you’d watch The Wire if you only had the time? Well, time found you. Were you dying to revisit Breaking Bad now that you’ve had some distance? Well, what a perfect activity for social distancing! Looking to careen through 40 seasons of Survivor? The CDC has spoken!
Many people, myself included, took the opportunity to revisit the greatest series of the 21st century, The Sopranos. If I couldn’t hang with my friends at a bar, I guess I could watch Tony and the gang meet-up at The Bing. If I couldn’t leave the house, at least I could commiserate with Uncle Junior. If my therapy sessions were going to be digital, I might as well have them with Dr. Melfi on my TV screen.
It turns out that 2020 was a perfect time to revisit these degenerate, yet somehow lovable cast of mobsters, not only because time had to be occupied, but because creator David Chase’s grand return to New Jersey with The Many Saints of Newark, The Sopranos feature -film prequel, is arriving this fall. With six seasons fresh in my mind and special attention paid to the series’ casual mentions and brief flashbacks to Johnny Soprano’s heyday, I’m ready to look for continuity, expansions of lore, and fun Easter eggs galore.
The prequel is a feature film and not a series, so it’s impossible for Chase to deliver endless callbacks and fan service while also telling a satisfying, original story, but here are just a few things we’d love to see The Many Saints of Newark address when it hits theaters Sept. 24, 2021.
We know that Tony Soprano will appear in The Many Saints of Newark, portrayed by the late James Gandolfini’s son, Michael Gandolfini. While the film looks like it will largely tell the tale of Giovanni “Johnny Boy” Soprano (Jon Bernthal), it seems likely that young Anthony will be getting plenty of screen time to satiate fan desire to see what he was like prior to his involvement in his father’s business.
How many characteristics will the young Tony share with his considerably darker adult self? We know he’ll likely experience panic attacks, but will he also share many of the other characteristics that made Tony seem human and vulnerable, like his love of animals? From the very first episode, Tony showed real interest and empathy for animals, like the ducks in his pool.
This is a theme that continues throughout the series, like when Tony goes nuclear on Christopher for killing Adriana’s dog, murders Ralphie over the death of his race horse, Pie-O-My, and loses his patience with his father’s old “goomar” Fran when he discovers that his father regifted their family dog to Fran and her son. It’s a small character detail that may not need a chintzy origin story moment, but maybe the young Tony dreamed of veterinary school?
For most of The Sopranos’ run, Paulie Walnuts was used as comic relief and shown to be a relic of an era that had passed him by. But from what we heard (or what Paulie says), the young Paulie was a legit tough guy heartthrob that the whole neighborhood either feared or admired. Billy Magnussen (Game Night, Aladdin) will portray the young Paulie, the man that Tony’s father would threaten to sic on his son if he ever misbehaved.
