Sopranos creator David Chase writes coronavirus-themed scene in which Tony is alive

Character’s fate was famously left ambiguous at the end of the seminal gangster drama

The Sopranos writer David Chase has written a brand new scene for the show’s characters, addressing the coronavirus pandemic.

Actors Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa, who played Christopher Moltisanti and Bobby Bacala on the series, read through the scene on their Talking Sopranos podcast. “It’s the first time [Chase]’s written them since 2007,” said Schirripa, “and he was nice enough to let us read that.”

In the scene, which Imperioli describes as “something to laugh about”, the characters – including some who died over the course of the series – reflect on the global medical crisis.

AJ Soprano, Tony’s knuckleheaded son, admits that “at one time I wanted to work for Trump“.

Tony himself, who was played in the series by the late James Gandolfini, says: “In my father’s day, you got polio, tuberculous, whatever the f***, you dealt with it. Whatever happen to Gary Cooper?” – referencing one of the series’s most-quoted lines.

Silvio Dante, Tony’s consigliere​ and manager of the money-laundering strip club The Bada Bing, says: “We told the girls we’d keep them all on furlough. Lap dancers were the first to go.”

Tony also describes Satriale’s pork store, used as a mafia hangout, as “essential critical infrastructure”, and Adriana La Cerva refers to her Irritable Bowel Syndrome as an “underlying condition”.

You can listen to the full scene on Talking Sopranos, as read by Imperioli and Bacala.

While it’s clear that the scene doesn’t fit into Sopranos canon, Chase has been working on a more official extension of the series’s universe: prequel film The Many Saints of Newark, which stars Gandolfini’s son Michael and will be released March 2021.