Long before your Mad Mens and Breaking Bads, there was HBO’s The Sopranos. Created by David Chase, the long-running series essentially answered the question, “What if Goodfellas didn’t have to end after two and a half hours?” Well, ever since it went off the air in June of 2007, Chase has been teasing a return, and now it looks like he’s finally ready to head back to New Jersey.
As Deadline reports, New Line has snatched up the rights to The Many Saints of Newark, the tentatively titled prequel that Chase and fellow Sopranos writer Lawrence Konner penned together. Set in the 1960s across Newark, New Jersey, the film will focus heavily on the conflicting and oft-violent riots between the Italians and African-Americans.
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A prequel is ostensibly the only route to go, seeing how James Gandolfini sadly passed away in 2013. Even so, fans can expect to see a number of familiar faces in the film, and while Chase is currently keeping mum, there’s reason to believe we’ll follow Tony Soprano’s father, Giovanni “Johnny Boy,” in addition to his wife Livia and his brother Junior.
As of now, there’s no director attached, though Chase, who also serves as producer, will have a hand in selecting the filmmaker. Don’t be surprised if he takes on the role himself, considering he directed the series’ pilot and series finale, in addition to helming 2010’s underrated Not Fade Away.
In the meantime, the entire series is currently available now via HBO Go, and you can start getting amped by revisiting the show’s opening credits, which used to echo across this writer’s family living every Sunday night for a decade.
