[1][2] Vera Farmiga portrays a young Livia Soprano in the 2021 prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark.
Life as a housewife was unfulfilling for Livia and she felt overwhelmed by her three children and unappreciated by her unfaithful husband.
Cagey, manipulative, and self-absorbed, Livia Soprano seemingly derives little pleasure from life other than making the people around her miserable.
Tony's plot for revenge is foiled when Livia suffers a stroke (said to be induced by repressed rage) and is taken into a hospital.
Livia grows paranoid and more difficult when AJ inadvertently reveals to her that Janice and Tony were discussing possible "do not resuscitate" options for her.
When Janice is forced to flee the state, Tony gives Livia a stolen plane ticket so she can stay with her sister.
Livia appears as a younger woman in several flashbacks afterward, as well as being frequently referenced, with Tony still far from resolving his feelings towards her.
For season three, a storyline was planned where Livia would be called to testify against her son in court, giving evidence on stolen airline tickets she had received from him, but Marchand died on June 18, 2000, before it could be filmed.
[5] Existing footage and computer-generated imagery was used to create a final scene between Tony and Livia in the season three episode "Proshai, Livushka" before the character, too, died.
Many of Livia's memorable lines such as "Poor you," "Daughters are better at taking care of their mothers than sons," and "Another toothpick" are direct quotations of Norma Chase.
[8] These suspicious tend to find confirmation in the maiden name Chase selected for Livia—Pollio, one shared by Gaius Asinius Pollio, who makes a decisive appearance in I, Claudius.