A newly unearthed James Gandolfini video potentially rewrites “The Sopranos” ending.
Series creator David Chase has largely avoided definitively saying that Gandolfini’s character, Tony Soprano, died in the 2007 finale. The acclaimed HBO show famously cut to black in the “Made in America” episode, suggesting Tony was shot in the head — but what if he lived? Where would he be today?
Rolling Stone reports Gandolfini made a video in 2010 to help the New York Knicks recruit NBA superstar LeBron James when he was entering free agency. It was part of a recruitment campaign featuring New York celebrities (including Chris Rock, Robert De Niro, Alec Baldwin and Spike Lee) encouraging James to play for the Knicks, and it included Gandolfini and Edie Falco back in character as Tony and Carmela.
The video, detailed Tuesday by the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast, shows the Sopranos couple in witness protection in a New York City apartment, apparently not very far from their previous New Jersey home.
“Tony, I’m so glad we moved to New York. Life is so much better now,” Carmela tells Tony.
“Yeah, life is good here now,” Tony replies. “Even if we are in the witness protection program.”
The pair talk about finding a home for Tony’s “friend” James, suggesting Madison Square Garden. (James ultimately ended up taking his talents to the Miami Heat, where he won two of his four NBA championships.)
The clip raises a lot of questions for “The Sopranos” fans. If Tony entered witness protection, did he rat someone out? Why would U.S. Marshals put him in NYC and not someplace further away? And what really happened in that diner booth?
Of course, Chase had nothing to do with the clip, which appears to have never been intended for public viewing and is not officially part of “The Sopranos” canon. According to Rolling Stone, no one outside of James’ team and the Knicks’ top officials saw it before.
But for fans of the mafia drama, it’s fun to see Tony and Carmela again, even if it’s an unofficial alternate ending. Gandolfini died in 2013 at age 51 and his character last appeared in the 2021 film “The Many Saints of Newark” as a young version played by the actor’s real-life son, Michael Gandolfini.
Chase suggested to The Hollywood Reporter in 2021 that Tony Soprano indeed died at the diner in the final episode of “The Sopranos.” He initially imagined a reverse version of the opening credits, with Tony coming from New Jersey back to a meeting in New York for a meeting where he’d be killed, but later saw a little restaurant and decided “Tony should get it in a place like that.”
In the 2010 finale, Tony was in a diner with his family as the camera periodically showed his POV, waiting for his daughter Meadow to arrive. An unknown man sitting at the counter then heads to the bathroom, ending up behind Tony — suggesting he killed Tony with a shot to the back of the head, and the dramatic cut to black represented Tony’s viewpoint as he instantly dies.
“You probably don’t even hear it when it happens, right?” Bobby ominously said in the season 6 episode “Sopranos Home Movies.”
Others have also analyzed the final scene to suggest the bell sound by the diner’s door created a Pavlovian effect every time viewers are seeing the scene through Tony’s eyes, looking at the door as Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” plays. When it cuts to black, it’s because we were looking through Tony’s eyes in his final moment.
Chase told THR that it annoyed him that some fans wanted a more explicit ending, showing Tony “go face-down in linguini, you know? 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.”
