Warning: Major spoilers follow for The Many Saints of Newark!
Fourteen years after The Sopranos went off the air in the most polarizing end scene in television history, we finally get a chance to revisit the legendary characters from the award-winning HBO series.
The Many Saints of Newark is a prequel story set in the Sopranos universe, albeit about 30 years earlier than where the series began. Available now to watch on HBO Max as well as in theaters, the film is already garnering reviews that range from lavish praise to harsh condemnation. That makes sense. When a show has as devoted a following as The Sopranos does, any new related project faces a mountain of unrealistic expectations.
That said, there are a number of scenes in Many Saints that almost seem gift-wrapped for fans, a way of saying, “Hey, we know you missed these guys. So here’s Silvio making sure nobody messes with his hair, and there’s young Artie Bucco foreshadowing his future in the restaurant business!”
But The Many Saints of Newark also manages to fill in several important character beats and plot points that were alluded to over the course of The Sopranos, while also answering one of the show’s biggest lingering questions… Read on for all the details on the mystery of Dickie Moltisanti, and the question of whether a sequel might be on the horizon.
The Many Saints of Newark: Who Killed Dickie Moltisanti?
Dickie (played by Alessandro Nivola) is the father of Christopher Moltisanti, Tony’s nephew. Dickie is the heart and soul of the movie, and much more of a father figure to young Tony Soprano (Michael Gandolfini) than his actual father, “Johnny Boy” Soprano (Jon Bernthal). Viewers of the series know Tony idolized Dickie; his name and his legend came up several times.
The most notable discussion of Dickie in The Sopranos was in 2002’s “For All Debts Public and Private,” Episode 40 of the series. That’s the one where Tony tells Christopher that a crooked cop named Barry Haydu killed Dickie on his front lawn on orders from Jilly Ruffalo as payback for gouging one of Ruffalo’s eyes out. The episode ends with Christopher killing Haydu in his house.
The thing is, the question of Haydu’s complicity in Dickie’s death has remained an open question for the past two decades. In the moments before Christopher kills him, Haydu claims he has no idea what Christopher’s talking about. He tells Christopher he’s being set up, before saying “I’m sorry” as Christopher shoots him. It’s clear that this incident was a way for Tony to solidify Christopher’s loyalty to him; what’s been less clear until now is how accurate the story Tony told Christopher is.
Indeed, as The Many Saints of Newark’s understated yet still shocking climax shows us, Haydu didn’t kill Dickie. Instead, Dickie is gunned down outside his house – in the driveway, not exactly on the front lawn – by a hired gun. (Dickie’s carrying TV trays when he dies, though Christopher had always been told growing up that his father was carrying a crib for his infant son in his final moments.) When the shooter calls his employer to confirm that “it’s done,” we learn who really had Dickie whacked.
It was Corrado “Junior” Soprano who ordered the hit.
Why Did Junior Kill Dickie Moltisanti?
The antagonism Junior feels towards Dickie grows throughout the movie. Young Junior (played by Corey Stoll) shares many of the characteristics we saw in his elder version on The Sopranos. He’s petty, vindictive and monumentally insecure. He’s jealous of Dickie’s style and swagger and the way he can command a room. Junior is often used as the punchline for jokes, especially by Dickie, who in one scene chides him for letting someone else insinuate Junior’s lady friend was stepping out on him. Another time, Junior falls and injures his back, and spots Dickie laughing at his misfortune. Junior felt disrespected, and he also viewed Dickie as a serious impediment to rising up the ranks of the DiMeo crime family. That combination led him to call for Dickie’s execution.
So now we know for certain that the killer cop story Tony told Christopher years later was false. Depending on one’s perspective and view of Tony’s manipulative nature – and he was a puppet master, to be sure – it was either a ruse to bring his erratic nephew back into the fold and get him under his thumb, a way to take out a problematic cop who was somehow on his To-Do List, or a combination of the two. Remember, at that point in the series, Tony and Christopher’s relationship had deteriorated badly. Tony didn’t trust Chris because of his drug problems, and the younger Moltisanti had serious doubts his uncle had his best interests at heart.
But in typical David Chase fashion, the resolution of this 19-year-old plot line still leaves certain questions unanswered. Specifically, why the cop told Christopher “I’m sorry” right before he was shot in “For All Debts Public and Private.” If Haydu didn’t shoot Dickie, what was he apologizing for?
Also left unanswered, and likely we’ll never know the truth to this, is whether Tony ever knew that his beloved Uncle Dickie was offed by his not-so-beloved Uncle Junior. It’s hard to imagine, but not impossible, to think Tony would let that kind of betrayal go without retribution. And it’s not like he didn’t have substantial animosity towards Junior at times anyway. So it appears unlikely that he knew the actual truth about Dickie’s murder. (Indeed, perhaps no one knew outside of Junior and the trigger man.)
But we can’t know for certain. And that’s kind of how The Sopranos always worked, didn’t it? It didn’t always give you all the answers you want, just the ones you need. Just like life.
Will There Be a Many Saints of Newark Sequel?
Speaking of unanswered questions and ambiguous endings, many fans are wondering if The Many Saints of Newark is the final bow for this franchise. Will there be more Sopranos, either as another feature-length prequel movie or a continuation of the TV series itself?
Neither Sopranos creator David Chase nor WarnerMedia have given any indication a sequel movie is in the works. On the one hand, the poor box office performance of The Many Saints of Newark would seem to eliminate any chance of the film spawning a whole series of period piece mafia movies. On the other hand, Chase recently signed a five-year first look deal with WarnerMedia. Even if the prequel isn't lighting up the box office, the studio may be happy with the prestige it brings the growing HBO Max service.
There are certainly more stories that could be told in the three decades between The Many Saints of Newark and the start of The Sopranos. The movie shows us the early origins of Tony's rise to power, but how did he evolve from teen slacker to underboss of the DiMeo crime family? The TV series only ever revealed a handful of details about Tony's life in the '80s and early '90s, such as the time Paulie Gaultieri helped Tony make his first sanctioned kill and become a made man in 1982. Assuming Michael Gandolfini has any continued interest in reprising the Tony role, that would make for a compelling spinoff movie.
Chase has tended to shoot down any possibility of a Sopranos sequel, seemingly preferring to leave the ending of the series and Tony's final fate ambiguous. And it's not as if James Gandolfini's tragic death in 2013 has helped the prospects of a sequel. But never say never. As it is, The Many Saints of Newark technically acts as a Sopranos sequel in the sense that it's narrated by Michael Imperioli's Christopher Moltisante from the afterlife. The movie closes with a callback to one of Christopher's most tragic lines from the TV series when he refers to Tony as "the man I went to Hell for."
But there was almost more on that front. Director Alan Taylor told NME that Edie Falco actually reprised her role as an older Carmela Soprano in a scene that was ultimately cut from the final edit. Presumably, that scene would have featured Carmela years after the events of the Sopranos finale and reflecting on her tumultuous history with the Soprano and Moltisanti families. Fans can always hope that leaves the door open for a true Sopranos sequel focused on Carmela rather than Tony.
Be sure to also check out Laura Sirikul’s IGN review of The Many Saints of Newark, and we’ve got a handy guide about 4 Key Things to Know before seeing the film as well. You can also read our interview with Sopranos and Many Saints director Alan Taylor.