While The Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark didn’t light up the box office, the film proved to be a big hit on the HBO Max streaming service while also giving The Sopranos a boost on the platform. This could very well be why David Chase, creator of The Sopranos, is in talks with WarnerMedia to make a prequel series for HBO Max.
Chase had previously suggested, during a talk with “Deadline“, that he could return to The Sopranos universe with a sequel to The Many Saints of Newark with Chase and Terence Winter potentially writing the project together. Now Ann Sarnoff, CEO of Studios and Networks at WarnerMedia, says that the company was “thrilled” with the results of The Many Saints of Newark and that “we’re talking to David about new series, Sopranos related, on HBO Max.”
Sarnoff admitted that the box office numbers for The Many Saints of Newark weren’t as promising as the company had hoped but she did point to the film’s target demo and their reluctance to head to the theater as a reason for its underperformance. That being said, she did add that the film had a positive effect on its parents series:
“You see The Sopranos pop into the top ten viewed series on the service and it’s given it an entirely new life. It’s literally lifted all of The Sopranos franchise in a new way. You can’t measure it just be box office.”
Sarnoff says that a final decision about whether or not the project is officially a series or a feature film has not been made but, given how well The Many Saints of Neward did on HBO Max, I’d say that they’re leaning towards making a prequel series rather than a film. The Many Saints of Newark, which stars Alessandro Nivola, Jon Bernthal, Leslie Odom Jr., Vera Farmiga, Ray Liotta, and James Gandolfini’s son Michael Gandolfini as a young Tony Soprano, has grossed $8.1 million to date at the domestic box office.
Would YOU rather see a prequel series to The Sopranos or another feature film?