Despite being chock full of Sopranos Easter eggs, the first trailer for The Many Saints Of Newark left a lot of fans cold. Sure, you could blame the steely blue filter that covered every shot of the upcoming prequel. Or, you could blame Mountain’s cover of the Bob Dylan track “Gotta Serve Somebody.” You could also blame both. As Tony Soprano would probably tell his idiot son A.J., it’s a free country.
But all that was wrong is now right. The second trailer for The Many Saints Of Newark, directed by Sopranos vet Alan Taylor, brings us back to the New Jersey we know and love. Set to a remix of The Flying Lizards’ “Money,” the Many Saints trailer returns us to a Coen brothers-esque landscape where violence is ironic and funny and the perpetrators are foolish and charismatic. Also, there are jokes.
More importantly, the new trailer gives a better look at Michael Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano. We’ll be damned if Gandolfini’s delivery of “I’m always being accused” with his mouth full of breakfast isn’t *chef’s kiss* the best. If that wasn’t enough, we’re getting a taste of Vera Farmiga’s Livia, and what’s sure to be a breakout performance from Billy Magnussen as Paulie Walnuts. We can safely say that Paulie being concerned that he’s going to get brains on his new jacket is what Sopranos fans were hoping for in the first trailer. At the center of it all is Alessandro Nivola who plays Dickie Moltisanti, hinting at the existential crisis which all The Sopranos revolve around. The best things in life are free. But what isn’t can be if you take it.
We also received an actual synopsis for the movie:
Young Anthony Soprano is growing up in one of the most tumultuous eras in Newark’s history, becoming a man just as rival gangsters begin to rise up and challenge the all-powerful DiMeo crime family’s hold over the increasingly race-torn city. Caught up in the changing times is the uncle he idolizes, Dickie Moltisanti, who struggles to manage both his professional and personal responsibilities—and whose influence over his impressionable nephew will help make the teenager into the all-powerful mob boss we’ll later come to know: Tony Soprano.
Directed by Sopranos vet Alan Taylor, the film stars Michael Gandolfini, Jon Bernthal, Corey Stoll, Alessandro Nivola, Ray Liotta, Vera Farmiga, Leslie Odom Jr, Billy Magnussen, Jon Magaro, and more.
Look, this trailer is good. Sit with the family and watch.
The Many Saints Of Newark hits theaters and HBO Max on October 1. Let’s all make a promise to not get whacked before then.