Now, over a decade later, the show's creator David Chase has accidentally revealed what happened.
In a leaked interview for the 2019 book The Sopranos Sessions, Chase opened up about the ending during a roundtable discussion with co-author Alan Sepinwall.
"When you said there was an end point, you don't mean Tony at Holsten's [the diner] you just meant, 'I think I have two more years' worth of stories left in me," Sepinwall asked, according to the New York Post and USA Today.
"Yes, I think I had that death scene around two years before the end... But we didn't do that," Chase answered, revealing that Tony was in fact killed.
"You realize, of course, that you just referred to that as a death scene," Sopranos Sessions co-author Matt Zoller Seitz quipped back.
Realizing his mistake, Chase said "F--- you guys."
