Analyzing Chevy's David Chase-directed Sopranos ad starring Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Robert Iler

Rolling Stone

The involvement of Sopranos creator Chase, original Sopranos director of photography Phil Abraham and the actors who played Meadow and A.J. Soprano in the surprise Super Bowl ad for the All-Electric Chevy Silverado "may not exactly place the Chevy Silverado commercial into official Sopranos canon, but it’s as close to a sequel to the iconic HBO gangster drama as we may ever get," says Alan Sepinwall, co-author of the book The Sopranos Sessions. Sepinwall adds: "Chase is never going to come right out and say whether Tony lived or died in the famous final scene of The Sopranos (though he came awfully close in The Sopranos Sessions). But if you subscribe to the theory that the guy in the Members Only jacket burst out of the men’s room at Holsten’s ice cream parlor to pump a few bullets into Tony, then there is entirely a chance that AJ (seated at the booth with Tony and Carmela) and/or Meadow (opening the door into the restaurant right as the scene cut to black) were collateral damage of this hit. But this Chevrolet-funded coda posits that both are alive, well, and happy to see each other."

ALSO:

• Jamie-Lynn Sigler says she "had chills the entire time" filming the commercial: "Sopranos has been this unique experience where every time we think it’s going to be the last time we’re doing something, there is always something else that comes," she tells The Hollywood Reporter. "When I got the call about this commercial, the whole concept made such perfect sense: it’s Chevrolet coming out with this all-new Silverado EV. It’s about a new generation, which Meadow and A.J. represent. I thought it was a brilliant idea. And then when they told me David Chase was onboard and Phil Abraham was going to be (the cinematographer), it was so special. It was a dream to do. I had chills the entire time."
• Sigler says she felt James Gandolfini's presence while filming the ad