Posted in: FX, Preview, TV | Tagged: fx, justified, Justified: City Primeval, Timothy Olyphant

Justified: City Primeval "Second Chapter" In Raylan Givens Life & More

When we last checked in on how things were going with FX Network's upcoming Timothy Olyphant-starring Justified: City Primeval, Olyphant was sharing some late-night anecdotes about what it was like working with his daughter, Vivian Olyphant (who plays his daughter in the upcoming series). Inspired by Elmore Leonard's City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit, the upcoming return series/season finds U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens in a new setting with a new cast of characters. And it's that sense of newness that showrunners Dave Andron and Michael Dinner want to get across to "Justified" fans heading into next summer. "Some old characters do show up, but that's one of those things the audience is going to have to get their head around: It is a pretty new cast," Andron explained during an interview with EW. "It's a new group of cops that are around him. It's cops in Detroit, not marshals in Kentucky, and it really is a standalone Raylan story, just with a few old friends sprinkled throughout." In an extensive interview, the showrunners discuss how Quentin Tarantino factored into the show's return, how new big bad Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook) differs from Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), and how "City Primeval" is the second of Raylan's three-chapter story. Here are some of the highlights:

Olyphant & Tarantino Were Big Fans of Elmore Leonard's Book: "…One day, the phone rang, and it was Tim Olyphant who said, "I've been sitting on the set with Quentin [Tarantino], and we were talking about this book, 'City Primeval.' We thought it would make a great year of 'Justified.'" So we started kicking around the idea, and FX was into it. It was very complicated to put together because the rights situation was a little murky — part of the rights belonged to the estate, part belonged to MGM, which was going to make this movie several times, and it took a while to get it going, but then we did." – Dinner

Raylan "Road in Front of Him is A Lot Shorter Than The Road Behind": "We had a great time for seven years on this show, and so the real intention was what if we did a long movie, a limited series, that's not really trying to go back for the past with 'Justified,' but to do a mashup between this book and this character that we loved, and not to revisit the past as much as we looked at this character as if he had three chapters in his life, and this is the second chapter. We catapulted him into this story, and Dave and I like to say that the road in front of him is a lot shorter than the road behind. He's at a state in his life where he is this walking anachronism, and can this guy survive in a world that's not the same world that he's used to? And the world's changed politically, sociologically, and he's changed as a man, and that's where we find him." – Dinner

What Makes Clement a Bigger Threat to Raylan Than Boyd Was During The Series: "He's [Clement Mansell] a great foil, in some ways more dangerous. Boyd Crowder and Raylan Givens were cut from the same cloth: They grew up mining coal together, so there's a familiarity, and they understand each other. That's what the show was about. With this guy, Clement Mansell, he's so unpredictable, and at a time when Raylan himself is seven, eight years older, so it's not only who he is physically, but also because he's so unpredictable … Boyd Crowder had kind of an amoral code, but he still had a code. I'm not sure that Clement Mansell, the bad guy in this, does at all. And that makes him really dangerous. It's a pretty formidable antagonist for our protagonist."

Justified: City Primeval finds Raylan Givens (Olyphant) having left the hollers of Kentucky eight years ago and now living in Miami, a walking anachronism balancing his life as a U.S. Marshal and part-time father of a 14-year-old girl. His hair is grayer, his hat is dirtier, and the road in front of him is suddenly a lot shorter than the road behind. A chance encounter on a desolate Florida highway sends him to Detroit. There he crosses paths with Clement Mansell, aka The Oklahoma Wildman, a violent, sociopathic desperado who's already slipped through the fingers of Detroit's finest once and aims to do so again. Mansell's lawyer, formidable Motor City native Carolyn Wilder, has every intention of representing her client, even as she finds herself caught in between cop and criminal, with her own game afoot as well. These three characters set out on a collision course in classic Leonard fashion to see who makes it out of the City Primeval alive.

Along with the Olyphants, the FX limited series Justified: City Primeval also stars Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard), Boyd Holbrook (The Premise), Adelaide Clemens (The Great Gatsby), Vondie Curtis Hall (Harriet), Marin Ireland (Y: The Last Man), Ravi Patel (The Valet, Meet the Patels), Norbert Leo Butz (Bloodline), and Victor Williams (The Good Lord Bird). Dave Andron & Michael Dinner will write, executive produce & serve as showrunners (with Dinner directing). Produced by Sony Pictures Television and FX Productions, Olyphant, Graham Yost, Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly, Peter Leonard, Taylor Elmore (writer), and Chris Provenzano (writer) executive produce. Walter Mosley serves as a consulting producer, with V.J. Boyd, Eisa Davis, and Ingrid Escajeda also writing the series.

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