Francis Ford Coppola always thought of The Godfather as a two-part film with an epilogue — which Paramount forced him to call The Godfather Part III, but he always wanted to title The Godfather: The Death of Michael Corleone, partly because he didn’t want to suggest this was the third “part” of the story, and partly because he apparently gives no effs when it comes to spoilers.

30 years later, Coppola is finally getting his wish — as part of the release of a totally new cut of the movie. The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone restores the film to Coppola’s original vision; he supervised an edit that created a totally new beginning and ending for the movie, along with a lot of reshuffling of other scenes throughout. There’s a new trailer for the new version of the film; you can watch it below:

The trailer also came with a featurette featuring Francis Ford Coppola talking about how the new cut of the film is different from the old one and why he wanted to make it. He also mentions the Coda title and how the movie now acts as “an illumination of what the two films meant” — meaning The Godfather and The Godfather Part II:

Here’s the official synopsis for the new cut:

Mario Puzo’s THE GODFATHER, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone follows Michael Corleone, now in his 60s, as he seeks to free his family from crime and find a suitable successor to his empire.

The Godfather Coda will be in select theaters on December 4, and available on Blu-ray and digital on December 8.

Gallery — Great Movies That Became Horrible Franchises:

More From Mix 93.1