Did Tony Soprano actually die? That is a question fans of the hit HBO series The Sopranos have been wondering since the show came to an end 13 years ago on June 10, 2007. After more than a decade of speculation, we now have an answer.
The Sopranos creator David Chase revealed in The Sopranos Sessions, a book about the HBO series, the fate of Tony (played by James Gandolfini) and whether he died at the end of the show.
Chase was discussing the final scene with one of the book’s co-authors, Alan Sepinwall, when he provided the epic spoiler and said that he had the ending in mind approximately two years before The Sopranos aired its final episode. Chase referred to the ending — which featured Tony sitting at a table with his family with Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” playing in the background — as a “death scene” indicating Tony did in fact die.
“I think I had that death scene around two years before the end. I remember talking with [writer and executive producer] Mitch Burgess about it, but it wasn’t—it was slightly different,” Chase said, via The Independent.
“Tony was going to get called to a meeting with Johnny Sack in Manhattan, and he was going to go back through the Lincoln Tunnel for this meeting, and it was going to go black there and you never saw him again as he was heading back, the theory being that something bad happens to him at the meeting. But we didn’t do that.”
After Matt Zoller Seitz, the other co-author of The Soprano Sessions, realized what Chase just revealed, a hilarious exchange broke out:
Seitz: You realize, of course, that you just referred to that as a death scene.
[A long pause follows.]
Chase: F*ck you guys.
[Seitz and Sepinwall explode with laughter. After a moment, Chase joins in for a good 30 seconds.]
Chase: But I changed my mind over time. I didn’t want to do a straight death scene. I didn’t want you to feel like, “Oh, he’s meeting with Johnny Sack and he’s going to get killed.” That’s the truth of it.
Well, that settles it.
Many people initially believed that Tony Soprano did die in the finally so the revelation comes as no major surprise, but it is nice to finally put all of the speculation to rest.
