David Chase’s long-awaited Sopranos prequel movie, The Many Saints of Newark, is set to hit theaters and HBO Max on October 1, and so, as will happen, there is now a trailer. Yes, that is James Gandolfini’s son, Michael, playing Young Tony. The rest of the cast is loaded, too, with everyone from Leslie Odom Jr. to Jon Bernthal to Corey Stoll to Billy Magnussen to Ray Liotta to Vera Farmiga, as well as Alessandro Nivola as Richard “Dickie” Moltisan-… HOLD ON DID THAT SAY RAY LIOTTA?! I forgot he was going to be in this. Wow. Okay, now we have ourselves a mob movie. This is all very official.
Here’s the official description:
Young Anthony Soprano is growing up in one of the most tumultuous eras in Newark’s history, becoming a man just as rival gangsters begin to rise up and challenge the all-powerful DiMeo crime family’s hold over the increasingly race-torn city. Caught up in the changing times is the uncle he idolizes, Dickie Moltisanti, who struggles to manage both his professional and personal responsibilities—and whose influence over his impressionable nephew will help make the teenager into the all-powerful mob boss we’ll later come to know: Tony Soprano.
And here’s Michael Gandolfini as Young Tony.:
And here’s freaking Ray Liotta.
Perfect, all around. No notes. Although I would love to see like a teenage Pauly Walnuts with the exact same hair as the adult one. Or maybe Tony Sirico reprising his role but just pretending to be a 17-year-old boy, without any makeup or CGI to age him down. So, maybe I do have notes. Bad ones, but still.
Anyway, watch it all the way to the end, just to see if you, like me, get a little emotional when that music kicks in. The boys are, finally, kind of, back in town.
The Many Saints of Newark premieres in theaters and debuts on HBO Max on October 1, and will remain on the streaming service for 31 days.