Posted in: FX, Preview, TV, YouTube | Tagged: fx, justified, preview, Timothy Olyphant

Justified: City Primeval Showrunners: Raylan & Modern Law Enforcement

Yesterday, we took a look at what showrunners Dave Andron & Michael Dinner had to say regarding FX Network's upcoming Timothy Olyphant-starring Justified: City Primeval. 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. In an extensive interview, the showrunners discussed 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. This time around, Andron & Dinner discuss how Olyphant's Givens will adjust to a society whose views on law enforcement have shifted dramatically since the show first aired, pushing back on "rogue cop antics" that were celebrated in dozens of series in the past.

"The biggest thing [is] it's not so much that the world and law enforcement are different; it's just that the public is now aware of what's been going on for a long time," Andron explained regarding the current dynamic between law enforcement and the public. "Raylan has always had a pretty specific code. There was a lot of gun violence in the show, but Raylan lived by a certain code and did things the right way. We wanted to bring him into the moment where he maybe had a little bit more of an understanding of what he was part of and the bigger picture in that way, paying a little more tribute to the world we live in and being aware of it." Dinner added, "Also, Elmore [Leonard] created these characters that it wasn't what they were; it was who they are. They were pretty fleshed-out characters, even the antagonists. It's always about who the characters are at the core." So while viewers can expect some shifting on the part of their characters, Dinner sees the situation more as being one where the world isn't so much new as it is now much more aware of what's going on within it: "When our characters move an inch, that's a lot in Elmore's world. So certainly, as Dave said, there's more awareness. It's not so much that the world has changed, but we're more aware of it now.

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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