While The Many Saints of Newark is a movie set in the same fictional universe as The Sopranos it takes place many decades prior to the events of the series, and mostly shows how a young Tony Soprano (played by James Gandolfini’s son, Michael) first became involved in organized crime. That means you’ll see characters you recognize from the show (like Tony) but played by different actors (like Michael Gandolfini).

At one point, though, the filmmakers did consider bringing back some of the famous members of The Sopranos cast. Many Saints director Alan Taylor revealed to NME that Edie Falco’s Carmela Soprano was actually going to appear in the movie. In fact, the scene was written and shot — but then cut from the final film.

Here’s what Taylor said:

When you make a movie you’re not exactly sure the final shape it’s going to be and we, believe it or not, shot a few things that included other cast members. We had Edie come in and she dressed up as Carmela and we shot something with her and it wound up not being in the final movie but it was a great excuse to see her again.

Taylor’s referring to the fact that he directed numerous episodes of The Sopranos, including the second-to-last installment in the entire series.

The director didn’t reveal exactly what Falco would have been doing as Carmela, but he did indicate it would have been the opening of the film. “There was some confusion as to how best launch the movie,” he explained. “So we tried a few things and that was one of them. If you’ve seen the movie you’ll see that we begin it in a very different way now but that wasn’t always the idea.”

I haven’t seen The Many Saints of Newark yet, so I don’t know how the movie does open or whether it’s a better match for the rest of the film. But I do know that the appeal of The Sopranos was very much the cast, as well as the actors. Yes I’m curious to see Michael Gandolfini as Tony, and Corey Stoll as the young Junior, and so on. But the actors were so fantastic, it would have been wonderful to see them again — particularly if it would have revealed what Carmela is up to these days. Don’t you just want to know where she is in her life now?

The Many Saints of Newark premieres in theaters and on HBO Max on October 1.

70s Movies That Could Never Be Made Today

These movies include some of the biggest of the decade — a few even won Academy Awards. But all of them would have trouble getting made today.
Get our free mobile app

More From 98.1 The Hawk