‘Boardwalk Empire Final Season Premiere Preview: New Clip, Time Jump Explanation

HBO's 'Boardwalk Empire' will pour its last premiere this coming Sunday with final season opener "Golden Days for Boys and Girls," though fans still no doubt question the period gangster drama's rush to the finish line, even jumping forward 7 years. To tide you over, we've got the first official clip from the season 5 premiere, as well as an explanation from showrunner Terence Winter of 'Boardwalk Empire''s big finish.

First and foremost, the newest clips from 'Boardwalk Empire''s season 5 premiere sees Nucky (Steve Buscemi) in 1931, attempting to negotiate a Cuban deal with Bacardi for the inevitable repeal of America's prohibition. That said, if you're wondering why 'Boardwalk Empire' seemed to shoot itself in the foot with an eight-episode final season that jumped to 1931 and skipped over a great deal of history (as well as a major character death), Terence Winter spoke to HitFix on the reasoning behind the shift:

Somewhere toward the middle of season 4, (writer/producer) Howard Korder and I looked at each other and I said, "I feel like we're inadvertently winding down Nucky's story. He has his eye on an exit, and he's so desperate to get out of this business." The whole idea of trying to move his operation down to Florida and Cuba, we seemed to be wrapping it up.

It wasn't our intention to end it this quickly, but it was certainly looking like that. The more we talked about it and the more we talked with HBO, we felt we were really getting towards the end here. The one thing nobody wanted to do was feel that we were treading water, bringing back the Villain of the Year, keeping it on the air beyond what felt like the natural progression of the story was. It felt more and more clear that we were there.

Then it just became a question of how we wrap it up, and when we wrap it up. And the decision was made to jump ahead and bookend with the end of Prohibition, because we started on the day before Prohibition, and 1931 was the first year it became clear that Prohibition was going to go away.

Winter also spoke about the history lost between the time jump, citing events like the infamous Valentine's Day Massacre or Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlbarg)'s untimely death as unfortunate casualties of getting to a more climactic period of the story. Additionally, Winter addressed David Chase's now-debunked remarks about Tony Soprano's ultimate fate, in the process revealing that Nucky Thompson would have a much more conclusive end by the series finale.

Well, what do you think? Will you tune in for the final season of 'Boardwalk Empire' this Sunday? Should the series have perhaps gone on longer? Check out the latest spoilery synopses for the first four episodes, as well as the first clip above, and give us your predictions for the final season of 'Boardwalk Empire' in the comments!