HBO’s Jon Bernthal-Led ‘Sopranos’ Spin-Off Is Officially a Streaming Hit

Jon Bernthal is having a career year in 2026, but he’s finally slowing down after starring in some of the biggest projects of the year on the big and small screen. Between his work in The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Bernthal has added over $4 billion to his career box office total in 2026. Even if he hadn’t starred in two of the biggest movies of the year, Bernthal still would have had plenty to hang his hat on this year, including appearances in TV shows like His & Hers and The Bear. Bernthal also starred in his first ever solo Punisher project on Disney Plus, The Punisher: One Last Kill, which spent over one month straight as the show on streaming. His future as The Punisher in the MCU is unclear now, though.

Jon Bernthal has several roles that he’ll be remembered for, but he’s also starred in other movies and TV shows that have mostly been forgotten over time. It’s easy to forget that Bernthal is part of The Sopranos universe, even if he never appeared in the original HBO series that was on the air in the early 2000s. A few years ago, Bernthal starred as Johnny Soprano in The Sopranos prequel movie, The Many Saints of Newark. Due to it being released at one of the many spikes of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Many Saints of Newark never got off the ground at the box office — the film cost $50 million to make, and it grossed only $13 million, falling well short of its $100 million break-even point. However, the film has been a hit on VOD for months now, even though it lacks a streaming home in America.

Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours.
Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from
the encounter.

Your nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you
completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the
conversation is.

• Lecter is the most dangerous kind of opponent: the one who finds you interesting. He
  never raises his voice, because he has never needed to.
• You keep a great deal to yourself and you are careful about what you show. That reserve
  is exactly the door he would knock on.
• The films understood something other thrillers missed. The horror is not the violence.
  It is being perfectly understood by the wrong person.
• He would be unfailingly polite about all of it. That is the worst part.

Your nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is
after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on.

• The Joker only picks opponents who believe in something. Your decency is not a defence
  against him. It is the entire reason he showed up.
• He has no plan you can predict and nothing you can take away, which removes every tool
  you would normally reach for.
• His whole argument is that you are one bad day away from being him, and you would spend
  the rest of your life proving him wrong.
• He would call it a magic trick. You would call it the worst night of your life.

Your nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work
out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time.

• Moriarty is the original criminal mastermind, the template every later one borrows from:
  a mind the equal of the hero’s, pointed the wrong way.
• You enjoy being the cleverest person in the room. He is counting on exactly that, and he
  has already built the room.
• This is the rare nemesis who would be genuinely disappointed if you lost badly. He needs
  the game to be worth playing.
• It ends the way these things always end. Two people, one problem, and only one way down.

Your nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that
is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way.

• Chigurh does not negotiate, gloat or explain. He arrives, he asks one question, and the
  answer was decided long before you opened your mouth.
• You trust yourself to handle things. He is the one problem in the world that has no
  interest in how capable you are.
• No Country for Old Men rewrote the screen villain by removing the thing audiences
  quietly rely on: the sense that talking might work.
• Call it. He will wait.

What Is ‘The Many Saints of Newark’ About?

The Many Saints of Newark is set years before the events of The Sopranos, and it follows a young Tony Soprano as he’s influenced by his uncle to rise up in the crime-ridden city of Newark to become a powerful mob boss. Michael Gandolfini, son of the great James Gandolfini, even plays a young Tony Soprano in the film, which was directed by Alan Taylor and written by David Chase and Lawrence Konnor. Michael Gandolfini is also known for his role in Daredevil: Born Again.

Check out The Many Saints of Newark on VOD platforms like Prime Video and stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of Jon Bernthal’s future projects.

The Many Saints of Newark