“Sopranos” Prequel Revisits 1960s New Jersey in Reshoots

"The Many Saints of Newark" is due out next year

Celebrity Sightings In New York - March 12, 2020
Michael Gandolfini is seen on the movie set of 'The Many Saints of Newark' on March 12, 2020 in New York City.
Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

The hairstyles and clothing hearkened back to the late 1960s, but the facemasks were very 2020. When you look at photographs of the recent reshoots for The Many Saints of Newark, David Chase’s return to the world of The Sopranos, you could be forgiven for feeling a bit of cognitive dissonance. On the plus side, however, there’s also the matter of The Many Saints of Newark growing closer to its release date — March 21 of next year — which is not a bad thing at all.

An article by Amy Kuperinsky at NJ.com explores the reshoots to date and speculates about what they might mean for the film as a whole. The reshoots have involved scenes shot at Holsten’s Brookdale Confectionery — the location of The Sopranos‘ contentious final scene — as well as in Newark, leading to questions of how the film will deal with Newark’s 1967 civil unrest.

The film’s cast features a host of fantastic actors — some playing younger versions of characters first seen on The Sopranos, others trying their hand at figures only mentioned in passing. Vera Farmiga and Jon Bernthal play Livia and Johnny Soprano, parents to a young Tony Soprano — here played by Michael Gandolfini, son of James.

The rest of the film’s cast looks equally impressive, including Alessandro Nivola as Dickie Moltisanti; the cast also features the likes of Leslie Odom Jr. and Ray Liotta, who are never bad additions to any cast. To what extent the film stands on its own relative to the series remains to be seen — but given the talent involved, this should be on many “most anticipated” lists for 2021.

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