Earlier this week marked the 10th Anniversary for one of the most controversial series finales of all time, The Sopranos, with its infamous cut-to-black that kept the fate of mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) a mystery. While the finale may have angered a cross-section of fans, The Sopranos is still considered one of the greatest TV dramas of all time, which has some fans wondering, in this age of TV reboots, sequels and revivals, if The Sopranos could ever continue. Series creator David Chase, unsurprisingly, revealed that he would not like to see a version of the show where everyone is re-cast, but he did reveal that he would be open to a prequel.
"I wouldn't want to see that happen, no. Like recasting? Everybody's getting older, you can't match people anymore. I could conceive of maybe a prequel of The Sopranos. I could never see [a return of the show] except as a prequel."
David Chase's revelation to Entertainment Weekly isn't the first time he's talked about a prequel. Back in November 2014, David Chase revealed that he would like to explore a Sopranos prequel set in Newark, New Jersey in the late 1960s and early 1970s, exploring all of the racial tension in the area, and the beginning of the "flood of drugs" as well. David Chase gave no indication then if he was actually writing a Sopranos prequel, and after his latest comments, HBO confirmed that they are not actively developing a Sopranos prequel show.
The show also made headlines in August 2014, when series creator David Chase reportedly revealed that Tony Soprano is in fact still alive, which lead to the creator releasing a statement revealing that quote was misconstrued by the journalist. Series star Edie Falco even talked about the possibility of a Sopranos movie back in 2010, but that was before the untimely death of her on-screen husband, James Gandolfini, who passed away from a heart attack at age 51 in 2013.
The entire series is still available to watch in its entirety for HBO, HBO Go and HBO Now subscribers, along with Amazon Prime subscribers as well. The Sopranos not only helped launch the careers of its cast members like James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Drea De Mateo, Jamie Lynn Sigler and more, but it also helped launch a few careers behind the camera as well. Terence Winter went from a staff writer on The Sopranos to creating another critically-acclaimed HBO series, Boardwalk Empire, while also writing the screenplay for the 2013 Best Picture nominee The Wolf of Wall Street. Matthew Weiner also served as a writer on The Sopranos before creating Mad Men. The writing team of Mitchell Burgess and Robin Green moved on from writing for The Sopranos to creating CBS' hit Friday night series Blue Bloods, and Todd A. Kessler ended up creating the hit Netflix series Bloodline after working on The Sopranos. Whether or not any of these successful writers would in fact return for a Sopranos prequel series remains to be seen.