It’s been 20 years since The Phantom Menace came out and introduced the world to the plucky kid version of Darth Vader, and there’s something comforting about the fact that the entertainment industry has apparently learned nothing in these past two decades. As reported by Deadline, Sopranos creator David Chase has confirmed that his prequel movie, The Many Saints Of Newark, will indeed feature an appearance from kid Tony Soprano, presumably when he’s a precocious youngster who has yet to descend into the criminal underworld and enjoys participating in whatever the New Jersey equivalent of a Podrace is. Maybe some kind of spaghetti race?
The movie will center on Dickie Molitisanti, an uncle of sorts to Tony Soprano and mafia soldier who gets killed by a crooked cop in the ‘70s. That means he’s dead at the time of the original series, though his influence on Tony and his son Christopher is a recurring bit of backstory. He’ll be played by Alessandro Nivola in The Many Saints Of Newark. Speaking with Deadline, Chase says the movie will take place during the good days of the mafia, before everybody wore tracksuits, and it sounds like kid Tony will be a fairly big part of the story.