The Many Saints of Newark is a Sopranos prequel that doesn’t, as far as we know, involve any of the HBO series’ original cast. But it nearly turned out differently.
Director Alan Taylor told NME that the show’s Carmela Soprano actor Edie Falco filmed a scene for the spinoff. It would have been Falco’s first official reprisal of the role since 2007’s divisive Journey-backed, cut to black finale.
"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 said.
Taylor also hints that Carm’s role was likely to open up The Many Saints of Newark as a framing device – but the creative team ultimately went in a different direction.
"There was some confusion as to how best launch the movie. How to start the movie," Taylor 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."
It’s not yet known whether we’ll be able to ever get a peek at Carmela Soprano’s cut return, but we hold out hope that it’ll eventually be bundled onto a physical release at some point. After all, we all know the Sopranos love their Home Movies.
For more on what HBO Max is serving up this year, here's our guide to movie release dates.
