‘Justified: City Primeval’: Timothy Olyphant Previews Raylan’s Return & Tricky Work-Life Balance
Preview
Last we saw him, Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) had taken his trusty pistol and Stetson to Miami and made cautious peace with longtime frenemy Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), closing out six seasons (2010–15) of FX’s acclaimed drama Justified. Eight years later, Raylan returns — a little grayer and slower — in the limited series Justified: City Primeval. Just don’t expect him to give quarter to his latest nemesis, perhaps the most dangerous killer to spring from the pen of Elmore Leonard.
This tale of good, evil, and the spaces between is set in Detroit, where Raylan’s job is to nail whoever murdered a powerful judge. The top suspect: sunny sociopath Clement Mansell (a beautifully evil Boyd Holbrook), antagonist of Leonard’s 1980 novel City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit. That book had long attracted attention from the likes of directors Sam Peckinpah and Quentin Tarantino but was never filmed, until now. Interestingly, Raylan isn’t in it, but, says Justified executive producer Michael Dinner, “We thought it would be cool to do this mashup of the character we knew and this book Elmore wrote.”
(Credit: FX)
The marshal is in the Motor City by happenstance, called to testify against a perp who made the mistake of trying to carjack him and his 15-year-old daughter, Willa (Olyphant’s real-life offspring Vivian, who is perfect here). In the opening, Raylan is taking Willa to a camp for troubled kids; later, she convinces her divorced dad they should instead spend some badly needed time together. “The job is what he knows and it’s what he does,” Olyphant explains. “The kid is the tricky part for him — [figuring out] how to be a parent and balance his life.”
But Raylan is put on the task force to find the jurist’s killer, and Willa’s presence becomes a problem. Not long after Raylan encounters Mansell, the so-called “Oklahoma Wildman” decides to mess with the lawman by befriending his unsuspecting daughter, provoking her father into a volcanic rage. As the mutual loathing escalates, Raylan will stop at nothing to make the bad guy pay for his loaded rap sheet. “Mansell leaves a trail of destruction wherever he goes,” Olyphant adds, “managing to get away with it helped by his lawyer.”
That would be Carolyn Wilder (King Richard Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis) — an ugly bit of fate has long forced her to defend Mansell. “Lines are blurry and it’s easy to not like some of the good guys and love some of the bad ones,” Olyphant says. Good or bad, “Raylan is fascinated by this smart, formidable woman,” says Dinner.
Also in Detroit: Sweety (Vondie Curtis-Hall), a barkeep with connections to Carolyn and Mansell; Clement’s companion Sandy Stanton (Adelaide Clemens), a danger-seeking grifter; and local detectives Maureen Downey (Marin Ireland), Wendell Robinson (Victor Williams) and Norbert Beryl (Norbert Leo Butz). Secrets abound among them all.
Justified: City Primeval, Series Premiere, Tuesday, July 18, 10/9c, FX
This is an excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s Justified: City Primeval cover story. For more inside scoop on what’s coming to TV and streaming in the weeks ahead, pick up the issue, on newsstands Thursday, June 29.
