HBO's The Sopranos may have ended back in 2007 but the way the show impacted prime time television still lives on to this day. The mob based series proved that television shows don't always have to make you laugh and the love fans had for the lead star, James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano) and his family helped the show live through six strong seasons.
Since the show's premiere turns 20 this year, the creator David Chase chatted with Deadline about the sequel, The Many Saints of Newark, and what inspired it to come to life. “I was interested in Newark and life in Newark at that time,” he told the publication. “I used to go down there every Saturday night for dinner with my grandparents. But the thing that interested me most was Tony’s boyhood. I was interested in exploring that.”
At first, David thought a sequel would be impossible since the passing of James in 2013 but exploring the era that made James' character is what the sequel will be about.
“I was against [the movie] for a long time and I’m still very worried about it, but I became interested in Newark, where my parents came from, and where the riots took place,” he added. “I was living in suburban New Jersey at the time that happened, and my girlfriend was working in downtown Newark. I was just interested in the whole Newark riot thing. I started thinking about those events and organised crime, and I just got interested in mixing those two elements.”
The focus will be on the crime families, such as Tony Sopranos. “It’s going to depict when it was good. The mafia was very polished at that time, how they dressed and what they did," David said.