“Tulsa King” won’t end the way most other gangster sagas do, if Sylvester Stallone has any say in the matter.
Stallone vows that Dwight “The General” Manfredi, the character he plays in Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount+ series, will be alive and kicking when the show ultimately ends. If that version of the fictional future comes to pass, it will mark a significant change from crime dramas’ usual arc, in which the head lawbreaker usually winds up dead by the time the final finale’s credits roll.
Then again, Stallone also is an executive producer on the series; he’s got sway.
“The fate of my character?” he recently told AARP. “Well, he’s not going to be shot. He’s not going to be run over. He’s not going to find a lump in his neck and that’s the end.”
Stallone went on to reference Dwight’s backstory — the mobster spent more than two decades in jail, protecting the crime family that ultimately abandoned him to the Oklahoma outpost — as reason that The General is going to have a nice, cushy retirement.
“Every gangster goes out on a stretcher,” he continued. “I want this guy, because he already suffered for 25 years, keeping his mouth shut, to actually revel in the fact that he went out as a success and didn’t face any kind of death threat or demise.”
All of this should make viewers rest slightly easier in advance of Sunday’s Season 3 finale, given that in the previous episode, Dwight dodged multiple armed mercenaries attempting to deliver a contracted hit on him, courtesy of New York mafioso Quiet Ray. (That said, we’re still worried about Dwight’s sister, Joanne, who ended the episode with Jeremiah Dunmire’s goon’s gun to her head.)
Paramount+ renewed “Tulsa King” for Season 4 in September, so we’ve got at least one more season with Dwight and the Oklahoma crew. And whenever the end does come, Stallone maintains, Manfredi will live on.
“None of my characters have ever died,” he said. “None.”
What do you think about Stallone’s proclamation? Do you want to see Dwight outlive “Tulsa King”? Hit the comments with your thoughts!