David Chase Left The Door Open For A Possible Sopranos Prequel
EW- You already know HBO has five Game of Thrones prequels in development. But what about doing one for The Sopranos? EW recently spoke to creator David Chase for the 10-year anniversary of the groundbreaking drama’s finale. We asked him, in this era of reboots, would he ever want to see The Sopranos revived?
As you might expect, Chase was pretty adamant that he would never want to see the Emmy-winning drama brought back to retread the same ground with a new cast — or to pick up after the show’s cryptic finale. “I wouldn’t want to see that happen, no,” Chase said. “Like recasting? … Everybody’s getting older, you can’t match people anymore.”
But he did surprise us by adding that there is a way he could see the world of The Sopranos returning. “I could conceive of maybe a prequel of The Sopranos,” Chase said. “I could never see [a return of the show] except as a prequel.”
To be clear: HBO says there is no Sopranos prequel currently in development; this is Chase speculatively answering a question.
Yes guys I will admit that this all seems like a longshot and trying to build a quote into more than it is. This isn’t even a “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” kind of rumor. This is the creator of The Sopranos talking about smoke being a thing that exists on planet Earth which then leads me to think there could be fire because I am an idiot. But that’s what being a fan about TV shows is about. I thought Arrested Development and Friday Night Lights were donezo when they were canceled. But both came back because the demand was there, cash could be made, and the writers had the creative itch and they wanted to scratch it.
Now of course they couldn’t do a continuation of The Sopranos because James Gandalfini is dead and Tony IS The Sopranos. Yeah that is an obvious reason but sometimes I forget he is dead and it makes me really sad. Same with Nate Dogg. Hold on I’m gonna need a minute. I loved those two dudes.
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Okay, we’re back. I’ll admit that the word prequel gives me the shakes sometimes because I usually associate it with the Star Wars prequel trilogy and I want to throw up everywhere. But there are plenty of instances where prequels worked. Godfather II. The most recent X-Men movies. Even Muppet Babies was technically a prequel. And a kickass prequel at that. So if you don’t mind, I am going to try to imagine a Sopranos prequel with Johnny Boy Soprano (Tony’s dad) running around getting into shit with Uncle June. Christopher’s dad would obviously be a character as well as Carmine and the goomah Johnny dated that also banged JFK. You would also have a young Tony, Big Puss, the Apriles, Johnny Sack and my boy Bobby Bacala trying to earn their stripes while misquoting lines, Tony’s mom being a superbitch, Janet being a superbitch in training, a young Carmela courting Tony, all the Artie-Charmaine drama, and God knows what kind of shit a young Paulie Walnuts could get into.
If David Chase wanted to do it, you know HBO would welcome it with open arms and an open bank account. And I’ll be in front of my TV waiting because nothing beats Sunday Night HBO Event TV. Compilations like this will have to hold us over in the meantime.
P.S. Since it’s finally Mount Rushmore season again, my Mount Rushmore for TV shows is The Wire, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, and The Sopranos.