A young Tony Soprano will play a pivotal role in David Chase’s upcoming The Sopranos prequel, centred on the Newark riots of the 1960s.
The Many Saints of Newark will be directed by Alan Taylor, who helmed nine episodes of the critically-acclaimed show.
“I was interested in Newark and life in Newark at that time,” Chase revealed in an interview with Deadline. “I used to go to 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… The movie will deal with the tensions between the blacks and whites at the time, and Tony Soprano will be part of this, but as a kid.”
It’s not known yet who will play young Tony, but last year it was confirmed that Alessandro Nivola would play Dickie Moltisanti, the late father of Christopher in the original series. When we interviewed him in December, Nivola revealed that, “Tony's going to be mid-teens, right at that tender age where he needs guidance, and all he gets is me.”
The mob depicted in The Many Saints of Newark will stand in stark contrast to the original series’ Soprano Crew, at least sartorially.
“It is going to depict when it [the mob] was good,” Chase said. “The mafia was very polished at that time, how they dressed and what they did. Those traditions were followed more loosely in the series. These weren’t guys who wore tracksuits, back then.”
Chase has previously been hesitant to revisit The Sopranos, but with the 20th anniversary coming up the esteemed screenwriter clearly feels there’s much to explore in Tony’s introduction to the mob.
“I’m still very worried about it, but I became interested in Newark, where my parents came from, and where the riots took place,” Chase said. “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.”
Nick Pope is the Site Director of Esquire, overseeing digital strategy for the brand.
