James Gandolfini’s HBO Recast: ‘Criminal Justice’ Seeks A New Star

HBO is recasting James Gandolfini’s role in the upcoming series Criminal Justice.

On Friday morning, HBO President Michael Lombardo told the Huffington Post that the network would never air a pilot with James Gandolfini.

Speaking about reworking the script with Steven Zaillian and Richard Price, the director and writer of the seven-episode limited series, Lombardo says:

“Jim’s passing took the wind out of our sails quite a bit.”

He adds:

“That [pilot] was just the beginning of the journey. The conversation would be about reshooting the portion Jim had already performed in and recasting going forward.”

The Criminal Justice series is still in development at HBO with scripts for the series still being written.

James Gandolfini and HBO were working on various projects for which The Soprano’s star would have starred. In fact Patrick Healy told Entertainment Weekly that Gandolfini, “… was worried people would be sick of seeing him on HBO.”

HBO hasn’t ruled out ending the series following James Gandolfini’s death. At this time, the network says it’s still “too early to discuss” the fate of the show.

Also set to star James Gandolfini and Steve Carrell was the HBO movie Bone Wars. HBO has not said whether or not Gandolfini’s role in Bone Wars would be recast or if the movie will be shelved.

Gandolfini was also set to star in the HBO film Eating With The Enemy, another project that now faces an uncertain future with the actor’s passing.

James Gandolfini’s death shocked his fans and apparently left a lot of uncertainty in regards to the future of several HBO movies and original series projects.

Do you think there are any actors who can take over for James Gandolfini in a way that respects the true vision of the projects written for his acting style?