James Gandolfini's Son Will Play Young Tony Soprano In The Upcoming Sopranos Prequel Movie

Deadline- The Sopranos creator David Chase has found his Tony Soprano. Michael Gandolfini has been set to play the future New Jersey organized crime family boss in The Many Saints of Newark, the feature prequel to Chase’s groundbreaking TV series The Sopranos that Alan Taylor is directing for New Line. He is the son of James Gandolfini, who originated the iconic role of Tony Soprano and won multiple Emmys, SAG Awards and a Golden Globe in an anti-hero role that made possible later bad guy turns like Bryan Cranston’s in Breaking Bad and future HBO series including Deadwood, Westworld and Game of Thrones. He died in 2013.

The late actor’s son has been gaining experience and had a breakout turn on the HBO drama series The Deuce. His resemblance to Tony Soprano is uncanny. The filmmakers engaged in an extensive audition process to find the young Tony before Gandolfini won the role. Insiders said that his screen presence, mastery of Tony’s mannerisms, coupled with his resemblance to the elder Gandolfini made him the standout choice for the role because no one there understood the character better, the insiders said.

So this story has been making the rounds the last 12 hours or so and I was pretty undecided about it. Since my life has devolved into chasing after my goddamn kids around the house during any free time, I don’t have much time to watch TV, so I have never seen The Deuce. And even if I had, I’m not Alan Sepinwall and have no fucking clue how an actor’s performance in one show would carry over to another. But since I am a blogger paid to share his idiotic opinions, here are mine on this casting decision.

On one hand, you don’t want an actor or actress to get a role simply because they are related to someone. Anyone who has ever been fucked out of a job, something on a sports team, or anything else in life because of nepotism will instantly think that. On the other hand, James Gandolfini created one of the most iconic characters in television history and by all accounts a complete mensch (am I allowed to use that word?), so if anybody deserved a little bump for sharing a last name, it’s Michael. And to be honest, no matter how much I loved the show (which I did, it’s in my Mount Rushmore along with The Wire, Breaking Bad, and Game Of Thrones), I never had the highest of expectations for this prequel movie just because there is not a long track record of these things working out. So in the end, I really didn’t care all that much about this hire, especially since I think the bulk of the movie takes place when Tony is like 9 years old, which clearly won’t be scenes Michael will be a part of.

Then I saw this TMZ video with Michael Gandolfini from 4 years ago and it completely locked in my opinion.

Holy shit, that IS James Gandolfini. Or at least his Mini Me. The expression, the walk, the mannerisms. I know many fathers and sons look and act alike, but that is some mindfuckery. If Michael could have just grabbed this TMZ pigeon by the throat and threatened his life, I would have believed his dad took a time machine from the past.

Having anybody other than Michael Gandolfini play the role of what is essentially a young James Gandolfini would be a travesty on par with those fucks at the Academy Awards not giving Infinity War a nomination for Best Picture. So not that he cares, but Michael Gandolfini completely has my support for being a young Tony Soprano. And for anybody that is for some reason upset about this, I am making a blind guarantee that he will do a better job in his role than AJ Soprano did in his role. In fact, they should have circulated rumors that the guy who played AJ Soprano was going to be Young Tony, this way any other choice would have been greeted with thunderous applause.

Now comes there part of the blog where I remember how sad I am that James Gandolfini passed away so young and put in some of his best Sopranos scene as well as his interview on Insider The Actor’s Studio that always screws up my brain because he doesn’t have Tony’s signature accent. That dude was a fucking boss, literally and figuratively. RIP and best of luck to his son with a role that deserved to stay in the family.