Did Tony die? What happened when the cameras cut to black?
These are the questions that have haunted fans of The Sopranos ever since the controversial and iconic final episode of the beloved HBO series aired on June 10, 2007. The open-ended last scene left many fans wondering whether Tony Soprano, played by the late James Gandolfini, was actually dead, and apparently it still has the stars of the series scratching their heads.
The episode ended with the Soprano family listening to Journey's "Don't Stop Believin" while having dinner at a diner as viewers anxiously waited to see if Tony was about to be murdered. As Tony looks up as his daughter arrives to the diner, the screen cuts to black. Ten seconds later, the credits started rolling, thoroughly confusing fans as to what had happened.
On Wednesday, the cast participated in a panel discussion at New York City's SVA Theater in honor of The Sopranos' 20th anniversary. Several of the mafia drama’s stars also spoke to ET about the series finale and gave their thoughts on how creator David Chase chose to end it all.
“I loved how the series ended because I think that there was no way everybody was gonna be happy,” Edie Falco, who played Tony Soprano's wife, Carmela, tells ET. “So David Chase did what made him happy, which is, you know, leave a lot of people talking about it.”
Lorraine Bracco, who played Dr. Jennifer Melfi, admits to not having a clue about what happened to the Soprano family after the screen went dark.
“I’m clueless,” she says. “I just, people want to know, I have no idea.”
Her co-star, Michael Imperioli, who played Christopher Moltisanti, agreed, adding, “I don’t know what it means. I don’t know what we’re supposed to take from it. What we saw is what it is. That makes no sense, but that’s how I see it now.”
Executive producer and writer Terence Winter says he was obsessed with the ending before it was even filmed.
“I loved it!” he tells ET. “David pitched the idea of the ending about a year before he did it, and I thought it was great from the first time I heard it. I thought it was magnificent and not everybody agreed apparently. I remember watching it with my own family and my brothers, sisters in Brooklyn, and as soon as it ended they were like, ‘What the f**k was that?’ and I was like, ‘I gotta go, sorry!’”
As for what actually happened, Winter notes, “Maybe it happened that night and maybe it doesn’t, but it doesn’t really matter.”
For more from The Sopranos cast, watch the clip below:
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