David Chase, creator of HBO's The Sopranos, is finally breaking his silence about the fate of his antihero Tony Soprano, confirming the meaning of the fade-to-black scene at the end of the series finale in a sprawling interview with the Hollywood Reporter. Chase spoke with reporter Scott...
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Sopranos Creator David Chase FINALLY Confirms What Actually Happened to Tony
By
Sarah RumpfNov 3rd, 2021, 2:05 pm
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Photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images.
David Chase, creator of HBO’s
The Sopranos, is finally breaking his silence about the fate of his antihero Tony Soprano, confirming the meaning of the fade-to-black scene at the end of the series finale in a sprawling
interview with the
Hollywood Reporter.
Chase spoke with reporter
Scott Feinberg about a variety of topics, including how his own mother was the inspiration for Tony’s difficult mother Livia, his experiences growing up on the periphery of “connected” families in New Jersey, and
James Gandolfini’s “off the rails” audition for the lead role.
But it’s Chase’s discussion of that infamous final scene in the show that — at last! — puts to rest one of the longest-running debates in this era of prestige television that
The Sopranos launched.
The series finale episode “Made in America” first aired on June 10, 2007 (spoilers follow, but come on, the show ended over a decade ago), and ends with Tony meeting his family at a local diner as “Don’t Stop Believin'” by Journey plays. Tony’s daughter Meadow, the last family member to arrive, enters the diner, causing the bell on the door to ring. Tony looks up and the camera cuts to black, ending the show with several seconds of silence.
The ending shocked some viewers, who worried their cable had suddenly cut out at the worst possible time, and sparked countless articles debating whether the ending really meant “lights out” for Tony or if the Mafia boss lived on.
Chase has avoided settling the debate for years, refusing to answer direct questions — until now.
Drum roll, please: Tony Soprano, in fact does stop believin’, stop breathin’, and just stop livin’, period, at the end of
The Sopranos.
Feinberg brought up a 2018 book about the show by two reporters for the
New Jersey Star-Ledger, and how they had asked Chase about the series finale. In the interview for the book, Chase had referred the final moments as “that death scene,” and Feinberg got him to confirm that was
not a slip of the tongue (Feinberg’s quotes in bold, as in the original):
Chase went on to describe how he had thought of the “notion” of how the show should end about two years beforehand, as he drove past a little restaurant near the airport, “and for some reason I thought, ‘Tony should get it in a place like that.’ Why? I don’t know.”
He added that he was surprised by how viewers fixated on the ending, and nothing else in the episode itself, describing it as “incredible” how it took over the news cycle.
“I had no idea it would be that much of an uproar,” said Chase. “And was it annoying? What was annoying was how many people wanted to see Tony killed. That bothered me.”
“They wanted to see it,” said Feinberg. “They wanted confirmation.”
“They wanted to know that Tony was killed,” Chase agreed. “They wanted to see him 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 shit for seven years.’ That bothered me, yeah.”
Listen to the interview below, or read a
transcript at
The Hollywood Reporter.
