It’s strange to think that had things been different, there might’ve been a seventh season of The Sopranos – that in another world, David Chase’s ambitious, mean mob opera, and with it James Gandolfini’s ambitious, mean mobster Tony Soprano, could have returned to screens one last time. “There was talk of us coming back,” says Michael Imperioli, whose performance as Tony’s problem nephew Christopher won him an Emmy. It was around 2012, five years after the show wrapped, that the idea of a reboot was first floated.
“There was even talk at one point of us doing a prequel, like with us in it – which given our age didn’t really make any sense,” says Imperioli from the dark alcove of a hotel room somewhere. “I remember Jim was like, ‘What are we gonna do? Wear wigs and girdles like Star Trek?” He laughs to himself, lost in the memory. “Yeah, I remember Jim saying that.”
