“He’s a leader”: Young Tony Soprano comes into his own in new trailer for ‘The Many Saints of Newark’

For Sopranos fans, the long wait is over: the first full-length trailer for the 60s-set prequel film The Many Saints of Newark has just dropped.

Opening with a voiceover from Tony Soprano himself, the late James Gandolfini, the preview starts by showing that young Tony — played by Gandolfini’s real-life son, Michael — is as quick with his fists as his older self was.

“When I was a kid, guys like me were brought up to follow codes,” the voiceover begins, before Tony’s younger self throws a local kid a beating for calling him a name.

The snippet shows Vera Farmiga as Tony’s mom, Livia, who hears from a teacher that young Tony is wasting his “high IQ” at school. “He’s a leader,” the teacher tells the skeptical mom.

The trailer also shows an all-star cast playing younger versions of the Emmy winning HBO show’s other favorite characters, as well as unknown characters played by Ray Liotta and Leslie Odom Jr.

Alessandro Nivola plays Tony’s uncle Dickie Moltisanti. According to Warner Bros. and New Line, his “influence over his impressionable nephew will help make the teenager into the all-powerful mob boss we’ll later come to know: Tony Soprano.”

The Punisher‘s Jon Bernthal plays Giovanni “Johnny Boy” Soprano, Corey Stoll is the younger Junior Soprano, and Billy Magnussen is seen as Paulie “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri, among others seen in the trailer.

According to Warner Bros., the movie is set “in one of the most tumultuous eras in Newark’s history,” as Tony is “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.”

The Many Saints of Newark debuts in theaters and on HBO Max October 1.

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