For over a decade, The Sopranos fans have pored over the show's very final scene in the hopes of answering one definitive question: did Tony get whacked?
We might finally have an answer – of sorts – thanks to The Sopranos creator David Chase, who was surprisingly candid about his ultimate plans for James Gandolfini’s mobster in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
Chase, it seems, always had plans for Tony to die – including an alternate ending.
"I had a scene in which Tony comes back from a meeting in New York in his car. At the beginning of every show, he came from New York into New Jersey, and the last scene could be him coming from New Jersey back into New York for a meeting at which he was going to be killed," Chase revealed.
In the interim, plans changed. A fateful drive led The Sopranos creator to rethink how Tony would meet his end.
"I was driving on Ocean Park Boulevard near the airport and I saw a little restaurant. It was kind of like a shack that served breakfast. And for some reason I thought, ‘Tony should get it in a place like that.’ Why? I don’t know."
While Chase hasn’t outright said that Tony is dead – and likely never will – his words are about as close as we’ll ever get to finding out what happened after Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ stopped and the show cut to black as Tony looked up in the diner.
The Sopranos franchise is still alive and kicking, though. The Many Saints of Newark was released earlier this year and reports indicate a prequel series could be in the works.
Find out where The Sopranos lands on our list of the best TV shows of all time.
