Vincent Pastore On ‘Sopranos’ Final Scene, James Gandolfini: “Tony Is Dead!” [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO]

Vincent Pastore, who played Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero on HBO’s hit series The Sopranos, has offered an interpretation of David Chase‘s comments about the fate of Tony Soprano.

Vincent Pastore On Tony Soprano

In the eight years since Sopranos went off the year, there has been an ongoing conversation about whether or not the final scene implies Tony’s death – or if he leaves the diner with his family unscathed. While Pastore seems to be in the camp that believes Tony survives the tense diner scene, he thinks that with James Gandolfini’s tragic passing two years ago, Tony has died with him.

“I think what David has said that now that James is gone, now Jimmy is dead, Tony Soprano is dead,” Pastore told uInterview during a screening of his new movie Staten Island Summer. “That’s what he’s trying to say. It’s not that he killed Tony Soprano in that last scene; it’s that Jimmy’s gone, so Tony is gone.”

Asked whether or not there could be a reboot of the New Jersey mobster series, Pastore is skeptical. He imagines that someone might want to make something that features the men when they were starting out in organized crime – but such a project wouldn’t include him. If someone were to play a young Big Pussy though, Pastore would support Mark Wahlberg‘s casting.

“There will never be another Sopranos, unless they do something about us when we were kids or something like that,” said Pastore. “Maybe I could get Mark Wahlberg to play me when I was a lot younger.”

In Staten Island Summer, written by Saturday Night Live‘s Colin Jost, Pastore plays Leo Manicucci. The comedy, which also stars Graham Phillips and Ashley Greene, is currently streaming on Netflix.