Often, the main character in crime dramas is killed at the end of the series. Sylvester Stallone does not want the same fate for his New York crime boss role in Tulsa King.
Although the show has already been renewed for season five and it is unclear when it will end, the Rocky star has aired his preferred ending, which involves no killing of his Dwight Manfredi character.
In the actor’s view, the New York mafia head isn’t morally innocent, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t do good things.
That’s why Stallone argued Manfredi shouldn’t have a tragic end; he even cited real-life American gangsters who later stepped away from the belly of crime.
They were Owney Madden and Frank Costello.
In an interview with Collider, he said, “There was a famous gangster named Owney Madden, who was 10,000 times worse than Al Capone, and finally, he realised his days were numbered.”
“He went to a place called Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1925, became the mayor and lived a life, and built a gangster’s museum. I mean, we actually shot a few episodes about that,” the actor shared.
So, Stallone said his Manfredi should become smart enough to quit the criminal life before it takes him to his end.
“But I think that if you’re smart, you can do that. “It’s happened a few times,” Frank Costello said, referring to the infamous gangster.
“They know. It’s like an athlete; you’re going to get it if you don’t leave, or you’re going to be the same, like Quiet Ray, or you’re just going to belong to this horrible, stupid, the same shit over and over until you’re 85, and you die, and you’re buried in some dump.”
Explaining all of that, Stallone said he wants Manfredi to have a life with his family, not in the criminal world.
“No. I just see Dwight accomplishing, taking care of his little family, and then figuring something else out. But no, I’m very opposed to heroes dying. I just don’t like it,” he shared.
That is, however, Stallone’s preference. What Taylor Sheridan, the creator of Tulsa King, has in mind for the show’s ending and Manfred’s fate is unclear.
