*Warning spoilers ahead for “The Many Saints of Newark.”*
HBO’s “The Sopranos” is considered by many, as one of the key forerunners of the new age of Prestige Television, PeakTV as it were. Yet, with the new spin-off, “The Many Saints of Newark” because of where it was set— during the late-1960s/early-1970s— it didn’t allow for original cast members to return.
However, one major character does return. Or at least his voice does. Michael Imperioli returns as the film’s narrator, reprising the role of Christopher Moltisanti and essentially telling the story of his father, Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola) from beyond the grave (a nod to his father predicting his murder when Christopher saw him while on the brink of death). It’s a complex idea, given that Christopher has been long dead on the show and is now explaining how explaining to his own father died, and reminding them all the awful things Tony Soprano did.
Imperioli recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter, reflecting on reprising the role without his cast members and getting into the big reveal of who was ultimately behind the death of Dickie, alongside differences between father and son.
“It was definitely different because so much time had gone by and there was an abstract nature to doing the voiceover, which is different than playing him. When you’re playing him, so much of it is him bouncing off the other characters, like Tony (James Gandolfini) and Adriana (Drea de Matteo).
While not entirely shocking, the film reveals that a younger junior Soprano’s (played now by Corey Stoll) temper and jealously was truly behind the death of Dickie, not a revenge killing from criminal Jilly Ruffalo, as once stated on the show by Tony. Junior almost killed Tony multiple times in the show, so it tracks that Junior would be quick to kill family members.
“It shows how fucked up the Sopranos are. It made me think that Christopher was doomed from the start, from birth. It is almost like it is imprinted in his genetics,” Imperioli said of the final reveal that the Soprano family killed both the Moltisanti men decades apart.
Also, Michael Imperioli commented on the differences between Dickie and Christopher, admittedly stating that the lack of a father could have led to Christopher’s spiral with drugs, alcohol, and domestic violence. The latter led Dickie to kill his own father, Hollywood Dick (Ray Liotta), in a fit of rage over his history of abusing women like his mother and his father’s new Italian bride.
“Dickie is a mobster and criminal, you can’t deny that — but he seems like a good guy. There are some noble qualities to him. I imagined him before the movie as more like Christopher, more hot-headed, but he wasn’t. He was a more composed character, which made me think that a lot of Christopher’s defects and addictive-compulsive nature actually came from not having a father.”
Given the film’s weak box office performance this weekend, it feels uncertain if we’ll get another movie, but creator David Chase just signed a new deal with HBO which has been said will “open the door” to potentially more “Sopranos” spin-off-series, so who knows.