Timothy Olyphant on His Return to Justified Role and the Potential for More Raylan Givens

Timothy Olyphant on His Return to Justified Role and the Potential for More Raylan GivensShow more

With Justified: City Primeval , FX’s prestige Western cop drama makes its triumphant return to television. Eight years have passed since U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens last graced our screens. Now, with a different Elmore Leonard story guiding the way, Timothy Olyphant’s slick Stetson-wearing lawman is back in action.
Over the past two decades, Olyphant has become America’s go-to gunslinger. From Seth Bullock in Deadwood to Cobb Vanth in The Mandalorian, a character which (as he notably stated during the TCA Winter press tour earlier this year) was a direct pull from Raylan, Olyphant has made a career out of playing...

With Justified: City Primeval , FX’s prestige Western cop drama makes its triumphant return to television. Eight years have passed since U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens last graced our screens. Now, with a different Elmore Leonard story guiding the way, Timothy Olyphant’s slick Stetson-wearing lawman is back in action.
Over the past two decades, Olyphant has become America’s go-to gunslinger. From Seth Bullock in Deadwood to Cobb Vanth in The Mandalorian, a character which (as he notably stated during the TCA Winter press tour earlier this year) was a direct pull from Raylan, Olyphant has made a career out of playing righteous lawmen.
“The boots still fit,” Olyphant said to Rotten Tomatoes in a Zoom chat promoting the eight-episode limited series. He added: “I grew up in Modesto, California. It’s not far from home, these roles. They’re really fun to play and, after a while, you just go with it.” Boyd Holbrook, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Adelaide Clemens, and Vivian Olyphant round out the cast of Justified: City Primeval, which trades Harlan County, Kentucky with Detroit, Michigan. Thanks to the return of the show’s original producing team — Graham Yost, Michael Dinner, Dave Andron, and Sarah Timberman have reunited for this — the limited series dials into the nostalgia fans want while expanding the Justified universe in new and exciting ways.
To get you ready for Raylan’s return to TV, here are five things to know about Justified: City Primeval. 1. Same Raylan, New Stakes Justified: City Primeval stars Timothy Olyphant (Photo by Chuck Hodes/FX) City Primeval steps outside of Raylan Givens’ comfort zone. This story takes place a decade after Raylan and criminal mastermind Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) parted ways. Nowhere near his hometown of Harlan County, Kentucky, this new tale picks up in Miami, Florida, where Raylan juggles his law-enforcement responsibilities as U.S. Marshal with that of being a father to 15-year-old Willa Givens (played by Olyphant’s real-life daughter Vivian).
This is still Raylan Givens, we’re talking about. And it’s not long before a dangerous highway interlude finds Givens stuck in Detroit. His calculated country sensibilities are put to the test in Detroit’s hardened streets. And while he’s chained to the responsibility of keeping his daughter safe, he’s soon immersed in a complicated murder case that leads directly to violent sociopath Clement Mansell, aka “The Oklahoma Wildman.” 2. Quentin Tarantino helped get the series off the ground Quentin Tarantino, on the set of Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood (Photo by Andrew Cooper / Columbia Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection) Quentin Tarantino is a fan of Elmore Leonard’s work. He even adapted the author’s novel Rum Punch into his 1997 movie Jackie Brown. So, it should come as no surprise that the renowned filmmaker had a fair share of interest in making City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit into something.
Instead of doing something with the material himself, though, Tarantino planted a thought into Timothy Olyphant’s head while on the set of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in which Olyphant appeared as an actor who plays — surprise! — a TV gunslinger. Co-producers Michael Dinner and Dave Andron explained to Entertainment Weekly that, if not for Tarantino, the series may not exist to begin with.
“One day the phone rang, and it was Tim Olyphant who said, I’ve been sitting on the set with Quentin, and we were talking about this book, City Primeval. We thought it would make a great year of Justified,” Dinner said. “So we started kicking around the idea, and FX was into it.” Tarantino was attached to direct an episode or two of the new series. That didn’t end up happening, but his involvement in getting the show off the ground is pr...