Tony Soprano's fate has been revealed.
For years, fans have debated over whether or not the mobster was killed in the final scene of the hit show, which ends with a black screen after depicting Soprano and his family sitting in a restaurant.
Many believe this was symbolic of his death — speculation that creator David Chase fueled when he referred to it as a "death scene" during a 2020 interview — but until now fans have been left in the dark. Chase has finally put an end to the debate by confirming in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that Tony Soprano did die at the end of the series.
The revelation came when asked whether his mention of the final scene being a "death scene" was a slip of the tongue.
"No," Chase said. "Because the scene I had in my mind was not that scene. Nor did I think of cutting to black. 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."
During the interview, Chase admitted he was bothered by the strong reaction that the ending had drawn.
"I had no idea it would cause that much — I mean, I forget what was going on in Iraq or someplace," he explained. "London had been bombed! Nobody was talking about that; they were talking about 'The Sopranos.' It was kind of incredible to me. But I had no idea it would be that much of an uproar. And was it annoying? What was annoying was how many people wanted to see Tony killed. That bothered me."
During an interview published last year in the book, "The Soprano Sessions," which was cited by the U.K's Independent, Chase explained that he had the "death scene around for two years before the end" of "The Sopranos."
"Tony was going to get called to a meeting with Johnny Sack in Manhattan, and he was going to go back through the Lincoln Tunnel for this meeting, and it was going to go black there and you never saw him again as he was heading back, the theory being that something bad happens to him at the meeting. But we didn't do that," he said.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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