Edie Falco Recalls Secret Sopranos Reunion James Gandolfini Filmed
Edie Falco reveals that she and James Gandolfini shot a secret scene after The Sopranos ended, potentially revealing the fates of their characters.
Edie Falco states that she and the late James Gandolfini reprised their iconic characters from The Sopranos after the show ended. The HBO crime drama, created by David Chase, ran for six seasons premiering in 1999, starring Gandolfini and Falco as Tony and Carmela Soprano. The series also starred Lorraine Bracco, Michael Imperioli, Dominic Chianese, Steven Van Zandt, and Tony Sirico. The Sopranos, about the life of a depressed mobster attending therapy, is widely regarded as one of the best television series in history, winning multiple awards for Gandolfini, Falco, and the show itself.
The Sopranos continues to be discovered by newer audiences and remains to be one of the most talked-about series, namely because of its speculative series finale in 2007, which ended abruptly by immediately cutting to black and the audience left uncertain about the fate of Tony and his family. The finale continues to be analyzed to this day, with Chase giving interviews on it for many years afterwards. However, Gandolfini, who passed away in 2013, was willing to secretly bring back his beloved character due to his fandom of famed basketball player, LeBron James, and the New York Knicks.
According to Falco, who recently went on Chuck D’s podcast, Shattered: Hope, Heartbreak and the New York Knicks, she and Gandolfini filmed a secret 10-minute scene back in 2010. At that time, LeBron James was a free agent after spending seven seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers and The New York Knicks wanted to lure James to their team in a special way. The team ended up recruiting Gandolfini and Falco to reprise their characters from The Sopranos in the hopes of signing James while revealing that Tony and Carmela are alive and in the Witness Protection Program. And apparently Tony Soprano is good friends with LeBron James.
Ultimately, the persuasion did not pan out and James ended up signing with the Miami Heat, but it is fascinating to hear that James is such a fan of the show and that Gandolfini would go to such lengths just to attempt to convince James to come to New York. Falco, on the other hand, was not a huge basketball fan and did not know who James was at the time. It also shines a light on the impact of The Sopranos and how many different kinds of people admire the series.
Overall, The Sopranos has left an indelible mark on television history, and fans who miss the show can look forward to the upcoming prequel movie, The Many Saints of Newark, written by Chase and starring Gandolfini’s son, Michael Gandolfini, as a young Tony Soprano. The scene that Falco and Gandolfini filmed for James has not been released, so unfortunately, all the contents are just reserved to the people who filmed it. But given the influence of The Sopranos, it is certain many fans would not be disappointed if the footage was released, despite it contradicting perhaps with the ending of the show.
