13 TV Stars Who Appeared on the Original ‘Justified’
The Raylan Givens viewers see in the July 18 premiere of FX’s Justified: City Primeval is not the same U.S. Marshal we left at the end of Justified in 2015.
Now working a case in Detroit, Timothy Olyphant‘s character is a man whose years are catching up to him. “His hair is grayer, his hat is dirtier, and the road in front of him is suddenly a lot shorter than the road behind,” according to FX.
Plus, Raylan’s daughter — played by Vivian Olyphant, Timothy’s real-life daughter — is 15 and getting into all sorts of trouble. “He has to be protective of her, and he’s also a guy with the world changed around him,” executive producer Michael Dinner previously told TV Insider. “The world’s changed, and his situation has changed, so we’re kind of seeing a guy in transition a little bit.”
That transition, of course, is complicated by the reemergence of a sociopathic criminal known as the Oklahoma Wildman, played Boyd Holbrook, in this adaptation of another Elmore Leonard novel.
And Holbrook, recently seen in The Sandman, is just one of many TV stars who have joined the Justified franchise. Here’s a briefing of more than a dozen other small-screen talents who guest starred in the original series…
Chadwick Boseman
This late Black Panther actor — a TV star by virtue of his role in the NBC show Persons Unknown — guest starred on Justified as drug dealer/aspiring magician Ralph “Flex” Beeman.
A.J. Buckley
Now a star of SEAL Team, Buckley played Justified’s Danny Crowe, a sadistic criminal who met an ignominious end in Season 5.
Gabrielle Dennis
This star of A Black Lady Sketch Show appeared in two episodes of Justified Season 5 as Gloria, a maid whose employer accuses of stealing his gold.
Kaitlyn Dever
Garret Dillahunt
This Fear the Walking Dead and Sprung actor reunited with Olyphant, a Deadwood co-star of his, when he played mercenary-turned-murderer Ty Walker in Season 6.
Sam Elliott
Elliott — who returned to his Western roots in the Paramount+ series 1883 and won a SAG Award in the process — played nefarious marijuana mogul Avery Markham in Season 6.
Carla Gugino
This Leopard Skin star appeared on Justified as Assistant Director Karen Goodall — a reprise, of sorts, of her title character in ABC’s short-lived Elmore Leonard adaptation Karen Sisco.
Tony Hale
In the first-season episode “The Collection,” this Arrested Development alum guest starred as David Mortimer, an art owner caught up in a murder plot.
Margo Martindale
Martindale won her first Emmy for playing moonshine-making matriarch Mags Bennett in Justified’s second season — and she later won two more for her role in The Americans.
Patton Oswalt
This King of Queens and A.P. Bio actor appeared in several episodes of Justified in the role of Bob Sweeney, a Harlan County constable who goes way back with Raylan.
Alan Ruck
Before his Succession days, Ruck played the fugitive money-launderer Roland Pike in the Season 1 episode “Long in the Tooth.”
Amy Smart
Alan Tudyk
Now starring as our Resident Alien, Tudyk guest starred in Justified’s fifth-season installment “Shot All to Hell” as Elias Marcos, the consigliere to a crime family.
