Perhaps Tony Soprano is not dead, after all

When The Sopranos cut to black in 2007, it left a lot of viewers wondering what exactly happened to our hero, Tony Soprano. Did he die? Did your cable cut out? Will we see AJ's horrible chinstrap ever again? The debate still rages to this day.

This day, however, may be the last day for that debate thanks to a Vox piece in which creator David Chase flat-out says that Tony didn't die in the Sopranos finale. Don't get your hopes up, though—there's no explanation, only the simple statement that Tony is not dead.

Vox reporter Martha P. Nochimson got the scoop during an interview in, fittingly, a coffee shop:

I had been talking with Chase for a few years when I finally asked him whether Tony was dead or alive, Nochimson writes. We were in a tiny coffee shop, when, in the middle of a low-key chat about a writing problem I was having, I popped the question. Chase startled me by turning toward me and saying with sudden, explosive anger, "Why are we talking about this?" I answered, "I'm just curious." And then, for whatever reason, he told me.

He shook his head "no." And he said simply, "No, he isn't."

Now, you may note that Nochimson doesn't actually tell us how she phrased her question, which, when coupled with Chase's terse response, could just mean that the answer was meant simply to cut the conversation off before it went any further. After all, the guy did leave The Sopranos behind seven years ago, and has since produced the very good but not-well-received Not Fade Away—a fact that the Vox piece reveals is a sore spot for Chase.

Not only that, but there's some 4,000 words following Chase's Sopranos bombshell. Had the "Tony isn't dead" revelation been the point, we'd probably have gotten an explanation there.

It's not as if Tony being alive and presumably well in New Jersey is a bad thing, though. It's just that it's not in line with Chase's historically vague response to the Tony's death question or leading interpretations of the final scene, as indicated across various Sopranos-focused blogs. But, hey, if the guy says Tony is alive, Tony is alive.

But, unfortunately, that only makes James Gandolfini's actual death last year more of a bummer.

Check out the full Vox story here.

[EW]