David Chase, the creator of The Sopranos, has revealed how irritated he was by the complaints about the TV series’ last episode. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Chase shared that he just couldn’t get behind the fact that the show’s fans wanted him to kill Tony Soprano after six seasons – in fact, he found it “annoying”. Warning minor spoilers ahead.
Often praised as one of the best series of all time, The Sopranos follows the life of Italian-American gangster Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), who must run “the business”, balance a family life and cope with ongoing panic attacks. In the final episode of the Sopranos, we saw Tony’s story end somewhat ambiguously. Sitting in a restaurant with his family while ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ plays in the background, we witness a dark-haired man who may or may not be a hitman going into the bathroom. However, we never see Tony get ‘whacked’ officially. Chase’s unclear ending was controversial among long-time fans and, to this day, is still talked about.
“I had no idea it would cause that much — I mean, I forget what was going on in Iraq or someplace; London had been bombed! Nobody was talking about that; they were talking about The Sopranos,” Chase explained. “It was kind of incredible to me. But I had no idea it would be that much of an uproar. And was it annoying? What was annoying was how many people wanted to see Tony killed. That bothered me.”
“They wanted to know that Tony was killed. They wanted to see him go face-down in linguini, you know?” Chase continued. “And I just thought, ‘God, you watched this guy for seven years, and I know he’s a criminal. But don’t tell me you don’t love him in some way, don’t tell me you’re not on his side in some way. And now you want to see him killed? You want justice done? You’re a criminal after watching this shit for seven years.’ That bothered me, yeah.”