Jennifer Esposito is pushing back against the idea that the upcoming The Godfather spinoff centered on Connie Corleone is breaking new ground for women in mob storytelling.
After an Instagram account shared promotional artwork claiming the franchise would finally tell a story “from her perspective for the very first time ever,” Esposito jumped into the comments to dispute it directly. “Nope. Not the first time ever,” she wrote. “It’s been done from the female perspective. It’s called Fresh Kills.” She also accused the project of borrowing ideas from her independent crime drama, adding, “But go ahead keep stealing peoples ideas.”
Esposito later reposted the image to her Instagram Story, doubling down on the comparison between the new Connie Corleone project and her own Staten Island-set film, Fresh Kills, which focused on women inside a mob-connected family years before Paramount announced its latest return to the Corleone universe.
The upcoming project, titled Connie, was recently announced by Random House and is being written by bestselling author Adriana Trigiani. According to the announcement, the novel will explore the rise of Connie Corleone, the daughter of Don Vito Corleone, and is scheduled for release in 2027. Paramount Pictures is also developing a film adaptation tied to the book.
Trigiani described the character as “a woman [who] works to forge her own way in a world that’s already decided who she is,” while Mario Puzo’s estate said the author was selected after writing about how overlooked the women of the Corleone family had been throughout the franchise’s history.
Long before the Connie announcement, Esposito had already spoken publicly about the challenges of getting Fresh Kills made. The actress previously revealed that she mortgaged her home to finance the film after struggling to secure traditional backing for a female-driven mob story.
The movie premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and earned strong reviews, including a score above 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but received only a limited theatrical rollout.
