Trivia / The Many Saints of Newark

• Acting in the Dark: Ray Liotta had never seen a single episode of the show, despite having been offered a role.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget: $50 million; box office gross: $8,220,603 (domestic), $4.1 million (international). It was left to be whacked by Venom: Let There Be Carnage and for audiences to conveniently prefer to stream the film on HBO Max instead.
• Completely Different Title:
  • In Japan, it was named Sopranos: Newark ni Maorita Mafia-tachi (lit. "(The) Sopranos: The Mafia Descended upon Newark").
  • In Latin America, it was named as Los santos de la mafia (lit. "The Saints of the Mafia").
• Creator Cameo: David Chase plays Ercole DiMeo in the brief glimpse we get of him.
• Dawson Casting: Michael Gandolfini was 20 when he played the 17-year old Tony Soprano. ^note His birth year was retconned from 1959 to 1955 for the movie.
• Deleted Role: At one point the film was to open with a scene focused on Carmela after the series finale, serving as a framing device into the film's main narrative. Edie Falco filmed the scene, but it was ultimately cut. The film instead opens with a shot of Christopher's grave.
• Executive Meddling: David Chase had originally planned to make a completely original film about the Newark race riots, but executives told him they were only interested in producing the picture if it had some Sopranos content.
• Fake Nationality: Jon Bernthal and Corey Stoll are both Jewish and playing Italian-American characters. Billy Magnussen and Vera Farmiga are of Lithuanian and Ukrainian descent, respectively.
• Hostility on the Set: David Chase lamented that Alan Taylor had become much harder to work with since they were making the show, accusing him of letting his comparative success in feature films go to his head.
• Playing Their Own Twin: Ray Liotta plays both Dickie's father, "Hollywood Dick" Moltisanti, and Hollywood's twin brother/Dickie's uncle Sal "Sally" Moltisanti.
• Real-Life Relative: Young Tony Soprano is played by Michael Gandolfini, the son of the late James Gandolfini who played the adult version of the character.
• Release Date Change: The film was originally set to be released in September 2020, but was pushed back a year thanks to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
• Role Reprise: Michael Imperioli reprises his role as Christopher Moltisanti as the film's narrator.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: Corey Stoll (Uncle Junior) bears a strong resemblance to Dominic Chianese, who played the older version of the character in the original series.
• What Could Have Been: David Chase had spoken for years about wanting to do a film set after the series, but was forced into doing a prequel instead by James Gandolfini's death. Tom Fontana suggested a film centering around Johnny Boy set in The '30s or The '40s.
• You Sound Familiar: In the Japanese dub, Tony Soprano is voiced by Akira Ishida, who already voiced Tony Jr., his son, in the TV series. Justified in a way and overlapping with Casting Gag, since young Tony is played by Michael Gandolfini, the late James Gandolfini's son.

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