Sopranos Creator Talks About Tony's Final Scene

Ever since the famous cut-to-black scene in the Sopranos finale, show creator David Chase has been asked the same question over and over and over: Is Tony dead? In a new interview with the The Hollywood Reporter Awards Chatter podcast, Chase all but confirms the character did indeed get whacked. Those who enjoy the debate can find some wiggle room, however, because while Chase "intimated" that Tony is dead, he doesn't explicitly say so, per the Guardian. See for yourself:

• Not a slip: First, interviewer Scott Feinberg points out that Chase himself referred to the finale as a "death scene" a few years ago, and he asked Chase if that was a slip of the tongue. "No," Chase responds.

• The kernel: About two years before the finale, "I was driving on Ocean Park Boulevard near the airport and I saw a little restaurant," says Chase. "It was kind of like a shack that served breakfast. And for some reason I thought, 'Tony should get it in a place like that.' Why? I don't know." But even prior to that, Chase said he envisioned that the "last scene could be him coming from New Jersey back into New York for a meeting at which he was going to be killed."
• Annoyed: "I had no idea it would cause that much ... of an uproar," Chase says of the finale. "What was annoying was how many people wanted to see Tony killed. ... They wanted to see him go facedown in linguini, you know? ... That bothered me."

(More The Sopranos stories.)