Fifteen years after “The Sopranos” concluded its run on HBO, a new gangster series has arrived on the scene.He is called “King of Tulsa”.

Directed by “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan, the new series marks Sylvester Stallone’s first foray into the world of television.

“It’s very hard to find something original,” Stallone said Wednesday night at the premiere of “Tusla King” in New York.“And when he knocks on your door, you have to be a fool to say no.”

How will “Tulsa King” differ from other gangster series? On the one hand, it’s a western that takes place outside of the big city.Stallone’s character, old-fashioned mob kingpin Dwight Manfredi, is tasked with setting up a criminal organization in Tulsa, Oklahoma.him after serving a 25-year prison sentence.

“The idea of taking him out of New York, so he’s not like a Tony Soprano, is completely alien world,” Stallone said.“He might as well have been walking on the moon.”

Five decades after Stallone auditioned for the roles of Paulie Gatto and Carlo Rizzi in “The Godfather,” the “Rocky” star is finally playing a gangster.

“This is a fantasy role,” said Stallone.“I always wanted to play a gangster.Not a cowboy, not an Indian, [but] a gangster.

Don’t ask me why, but there’s a romanticism to these kinds of characters.”

Co-showrunner Terence Winter, who served as a writer and producer on “The Sopranos,” said that Stallone is basically playing a version of himself.

“Murder and mayhem aside, he’s that guy,” Winter said.Variety.“It was a very easy thing to write.I had her voice in my head and I knew I could pull this off in no time.

It wasn’t a great stretch acting-wise.He’s very imposing, and when you give yourself that look, you think you’re looking at a gangster.”

When Dwight arrives in Tulsa, it doesn’t take long to assemble his own team.His first partner, Tyson (Jay Will), is a Jesse Pinkman-like character who agrees to take him wherever he needs to go.

And his first place of business? A local dispensary.

“I was like, ‘This is a different color on the Crayola bag that I’ve never seen from him before’ when he toasted from a jay,” Will said.

Variety.“It was good to see him relax a bit.It’s a variety of experiences that I have with him in the car as a driver, from being involved in drive-by shootings to him taking drugs from behind.”

A romance is also brewing between Dwight and a much younger woman named Stacy Beale (Andrea Savage).Stacy runs out of Dwight’s hotel room when she learns for the first time that she is 75 years old, which is how old Stallone was when they filmed the series.

“I will say there was a part of me that was like, ‘Is he going to be offended by this?’” Savage said.

Variety.“But I was like, ‘He knows it’s in the script.He knows how old he is.No, it was really fun.

He was a great sportsman about it.”

the turn? Stacy is a law enforcement officer in Tulsa who is willing to keep an eye on Dwight.

Savage hinted that her character’s relationship with Dwight will evolve in unexpected ways.

“We have a bond,” Savage said.“We are both fish out of water in search of what we are doing in our lives.My character becomes probably the most dramatic character on the show, so he stopped being so funny, which was actually insanely funny for me.”

Max Casella, who played Benny Fazio on “The Sopranos,” said the real charm of “Tusla King” is its “motley cast of characters.”

“It turns the old gangster genre on its head,” Casella said.

Variety.“He gets it out of the west.He is working with Gen Z-ers dispensaries that sell weed, Native Americans, myself, they all have their own issues.”.