US Marshal Rylan Givens is back in the saddle again. More than eight years after Timothy Olyphant hung his hat in the Justified series finale, the sequel series City Primeval has him back in action.
The critically acclaimed Neo-Western movie, which aired from 2010 to 2015, was based on Elmore Leonard’s stories about Raylan Givens. The renegade marshal was known (and often reprimanded) to administer justice as he saw fit. In this series, Givens returns home to Harlan County in the Appalachian Mountains region of eastern Kentucky. There, he encounters local drug lords, white supremacists, and other criminals.
In Justified: City Primeval, Givens will encounter new enemies in a new environment. Here are seven things to know about the narrow segment before watching the premiere Tuesday, July 18.
1. A justifiable universally beloved ending
If you don’t remember how Justified ended, here’s a quick update. The long game of cat and mouse between Givens and Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) is finally coming to a head. Shockingly, after all the violence and shootings, they both left Harlan alive.
They encountered guns pointed at each other one last time, but did not fire. Instead, Givens arrested Crowder.
After a four-year leap, Givens is back in Florida with his young daughter. He visits Boyd in prison and they have a final conversation about leaving the past behind. Therefore, Justified ended not with an explosion, but with bittersweetness.
2. The spinoffs come straight from Elmore Leonard’s book
While Justified was based on the Elmore Leonard books, Raylan Givens was only front and center in the “Fire in the Hole” story. So over the course of six seasons, the show has become its own entity. Creator Graham Yost made major changes where necessary, particularly around the history of Givens.
The spin-off is more of an outright adaptation, taking elements from the novel City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit, which in fact does not feature Givens. But the villain, Clement Mansell, better known as the “Oklahoma Wildman,” is the same.
3. Quentin Tarantino is (somewhat) responsible
said Michael Diner, co-showrunner Entertainment Weekly Fans can (sort of) thank Quentin Tarantino for being there.
Tarantino is best known for adapting Room Punch Leonard into his 1997 film Jackie Brown. Before that, City Primeval was one of the other books he considered. Then, while filming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the topic came up in a conversation between Tarantino and cast member Oliphant.
Dinner explained, “One day the phone rang and it was Tim Olyphant who said, ‘I was sitting on the set with Quentin, and we were talking about this book, City Primeval. ‘” We thought it would make a great year from Justified.” So we started brainstorming the idea, and FX got involved.”
Early on, Tarantino’s name was attached as a potential director. However, he did not end up directing any episodes.
4. City Primeval is a sequel
This may seem like a no-brainer, since City Primeval premieres eight years after Justified ended. But we have a lot of questions about if and when the new show is a sequel.
Answers: It’s definitely a sequel and takes place 10 years after the events of the Justified series finale (then). Givens is stationed in Miami, where he is raising his 15-year-old daughter, Willa (played by Olyphant’s real-life daughter, Vivian Olyphant). It’s a delightfully rebellious slice of the old block.
5. Expect new faces often
Justified has boasted a gallery of fantastic guest stars, recurring cast members and series regulars, from Walton Goggins to Margo Martindale to Jeremy Davies. As much as fans might like to see some familiar faces in City Primeval, they shouldn’t expect it.
“Some of the old characters are already showing up, but that’s one of the things the audience has to change: It’s a very new cast,” co-showrunner Dave Andron told EW. “It’s a new group of cops around him. They’re Detroit cops, not Kentucky vigilantes, and it’s really a stand-alone story from Raylan, with a few old friends sprinkled throughout.”
Juniors Boyd Holbrook leads as villainous Clement Mansell and Aunjanue Ellis as Mansell’s brilliant defense attorney Caroline Wilder. In addition, the cast includes Adelaide Clemens as Mansell’s sweet girlfriend Sandy, Norbert Leo Butz as a detective and Vondie Curtis-Hall as a bar owner.
6. Raylan Givens is a fish out of water
Part of what made Justified so interesting was Givens’ long and complicated history with his home district and its residents. He knew just about everyone and they knew him, which made for a toxic incest stew.
But in City Primeval, Givens is headed to an unfamiliar place: Detroit. It was Leonard’s birthplace and a character in most of his work. He has been called the “Dickens of Detroit”.
The Diner calls the city its “fourth persona” after the main trio of Givens, Mansell and Wilder.
He noted, “Rylan is a little fish out of water in a place he doesn’t understand as well as where he grew up in Kentucky or Miami where he lives.”
And his cowboy ways won’t sit well with the Detroit detectives, who have their own way of getting justice.
7. STOPPING A REAL SHOOT
Art and life collided during the production of Justified: City Primeval when a real-life shootout occurred while the cast and crew were filming in Chicago.
on Conan O’Brien needs a friend podcastOlyphant recounted hearing a series of rapid gunshots while filming in a “very bad neighborhood”. The cars then drove past a nearby roadblock and people in the vehicles were “machine gun fire” at each other.
“It was the scariest thing. It went on forever,” he said, adding that he grabbed a production assistant and “kicked her out of the way.”
Oliphant also noted that a police officer at the scene described it as “one of the closest calls he’s ever had.”
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