Followers of the HBO traditional crime drama The Sopranos have their fair proportion of solid reunions to take a look at, within the type of movies like Killing Them Softly, Not Fade Away, and Nicky Deuce, in addition to the 2021 Sopranos prequel movie The Many Saints of Newark. Nonetheless, none of those initiatives have seen James Gandolfini and Edie Falco reprise their main roles as Tony and Carmela Soprano. That esteemed honor can solely be granted to a weird minute-long promotional video that was initially shot in 2010 and lately resurfaced on the web after years of being utterly misplaced to time.
The video opens with textual content that signifies we’re seeing Tony and Carmela two years after the notorious cut-to-black ending of The Sopranos.
The video, which was developed as a part of a promotional marketing campaign to persuade NBA legend LeBron James to affix the New York Knicks, sees Tony and Carmela Soprano conversing about the right way to greatest entice the professional athlete to maneuver to the East Coast. It encompasses a temporary dialog about LeBron’s respect for custom, a number of cheeky winks and nods to the digital camera, and a heat vibe that actually makes you’re feeling such as you’re spending a second with the Soprano household as soon as once more. Sadly, it additionally supplies some absurd implications, which make for the worst alternate ending to the collection humanly potential.
It opens with textual content that signifies we’re seeing Tony and Carmela two years after the notorious cut-to-black ending of The Sopranos. As we fade in, Carmela affords the exposition “Tony, I’m so glad we moved to New York. Life is so a lot better now,” which prompts Gandolfini to answer “Yeah, life’s good right here Carm. Even when we’re within the witness safety program.”
This means that Tony didn’t die within the collection’ ambiguous ultimate moments however as an alternative grew to become a snitch for the federal authorities and implicated his buddies and associates by taking the witness stand.
Clearly, this line of dialogue is supposed to be an intentional joke, as James Gandolfini mugs the digital camera like Michael Scott from The Workplace. Nonetheless, the road has hilariously backward implications past the apparent absurdity of Tony turning his again on his complete id.
Whereas Falco beforehand spoke on the existence of this video again in 2021, no one had truly seen the ultimate product because it was shot over 14 years in the past.
For starters, why would the federal authorities agree to chop a take care of the boss of the North Jersey mob, which sees him strolling free after fewer than two complete years in a penitentiary? Moreover, who did he even give as much as the feds within the first place, since practically all of his high-ranking associates are useless and buried by the point The Sopranos involves a detailed?
Presumably essentially the most baffling factor about this video is the suggestion that Tony and Carmela have been moved 20 minutes East by the feds, putting them straight in enemy territory. If Tony have been admitted into the witness safety program, it actually wouldn’t bode nicely to place him in New York, the place no matter stays of the Lupertazzi crime household may stumble onto him in an opportunity encounter on the grocery retailer.
I imply, even Vito Spatafore had the nice sense to go all the way in which out to Yonkers when he was moonlighting because the biker within the Village Folks.
This means that Tony didn’t die within the collection’ ambiguous ultimate moments however as an alternative grew to become a snitch for the federal authorities and implicated his buddies and associates by taking the witness stand.
Canonical inconsistencies apart, it’s stunning and refreshing to see James Gandolfini and Edie Falco reunited collectively on digital camera. Whereas Falco beforehand spoke on the existence of this video again in 2021, no one had truly seen the ultimate product because it was shot over 14 years in the past. Apparently, the complete model contains numerous main celebrities exterior of The Sopranos, together with Chris Rock, Robert De Niro, Alec Baldwin, and Spike Lee. Alas, LeBron by no means did make the transfer over to New York, thus closing the chapter on the wackiest Sopranos alternate ending the world has ever identified.