After eight long years away from the spotlight, Raylan Givens is finally back on TV with this week’s debut of Justified: City Primeval. The limited series is based on an Elmore Leonard book that, unlike Fire in the Hole, doesn’t feature Raylan Givens. That said, the story of City Primeval fits perfectly with Raylan’s character and journey, making it the ideal tale to tell in his long-awaited comeback. This time around, Raylan is no longer in the familiar territory of Harlan, Kentucky, instead chasing down a villain through the city streets of Detroit, Michigan.
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Putting Raylan in such a different situation than he’s used to creates a bit of a fish-out-of-water scenario for the beloved US Marshal. Harlan was his home, and he knew what to expect around just about every turn. That won’t be the case here. According to star Timothy Olyphant, it’ll be a very different type of journey for Raylan, though the experience will be similar for fans of the original series.
“It’s a bit of a fish-out-of-water deal,” Olyphant told EW about his character in the new series. “It’s definitely a different vibe, familiar but totally different. Everything about it felt right, and I hope people enjoy it.”
When the story came up as a possible way for Raylan to come back, it immediately clicked for Olyphant and the show’s creative team.
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is a Raylan story. It’s the exact same story and it’s the same guy,’” he explained. “It just felt like an easy world for us to jump into.”
Returning to Justified for City Primeval
For Olyphant, coming back to play Raylan Givens after eight years away really wasn’t too big of a challenge. In the same interview, he noted that it was such a familiar situation, it made the entire experience comfortable.
“It was that old ‘Wasn’t it just yesterday?’ kind of feeling,” the actor said. “It’s just such a comfortable place to work from, and then there was something really refreshing about it because there was so many new faces. It was just that perfect amount of familiarity, and then totally foreign at the same time.”
What Is Justified: City Primeval About?
Here’s the official synopsis for Justified: City Primeval:
“Having left the hollers of Kentucky eight years ago, Raylan Givens now lives 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 Elmore Leonard fashion, to see who makes it out of the City Primeval alive.”
