Justified: City Primeval: Timothy Olyphant Reveals How Close Quentin Tarantino Got to Directing FX Revival

FX's Justified: City Primeval is a follow-up to the award-winning Justified series, and it sees Timothy Olyphant reprising his role as the fan-favorite Raylan Givens. The new series still has three more episodes to go, and co-showrunner Michael Dinner recently teased the possibility of more stories in the future. Dinner also directed three episodes of the new series along with Jon Avent, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Katrelle N. Kindred, Kevin Rodney Sullivan, and Sylvain White. However, one big name was almost on the line-up of directors for the series. Quentin Tarantino was previously in talks to helm part of the revival, but it didn't work out. Olyphant recently appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast and spoke about Tarantino's near-involvement. 

"He almost directed [it.] We were drinking margaritas... He was asking something about an actor who was in Justified and I was like 'It's funny talking about this, because we're getting ready to do this reincarnation of it...' Olyphant explained.  "He says, 'Get the f*ck out,' and I said, 'Yeah!' He's like... 'Could I direct that?' I was like, 'I don't think it's gonna be a problem. [laughs] I could put in a good word...' So he read the scripts. I said, 'You can't direct the first one... Michael Dinner's got dibs on that,' so I said, 'Maybe you want to read 'em.' So he read 'em and said 'I want to do the fourth one... Can I read some more?'"

Olyphant continued, "I was like, 'OK,' and he said, 'I want to do the seventh one.' We were all very excited. And then his wife was pregnant with their second baby and that was that. [He] was like, 'Sorry, I can't leave Israel when my wife's having a child to go direct your show,' and so sadly... It was a hard one to argue... It's a good sign for him and his kids... He's taking fatherhood seriously."

What Is Justified: City Primeval About?

Justified: City Primeval was inspired by Elmore Leonard's novel City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit. Eight years after leaving Kentucky for Miami, Olyphant's U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens is trying to help raise a teenager and contending with a changing world. However, down in Florida, he runs into Clement Mansell, who has some history with the Marshal. The Disney-backed series will begin production in this week in Chicago and will feature the cast additions of Aunjanue Ellis, Boyd Holbrook, Adelaide Clemens, Vondie Curtis Hall, Marin Ireland, Norbert Leo Butz, Victor Williams, Ravi Patel, and Vivian Olyphant.

"Justified was one of the most critically acclaimed shows of the past decade and an adaption of Elmore Leonard's work that was so colorfully brought to life by Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens, Graham Yost and the entire team of producers, writers, directors and cast," Eric Schrier, president of FX Entertainment, previously said in a statement. "To have this group come together again with Tim as Raylan in a new and different Elmore Leonard story is thrilling. I want to thank our showrunners Dave and Michael, and their fellow executive producers Tim, Graham, Sarah, and Carl, the Elmore Leonard estate as well as our partners at Sony Pictures Television, for making this possible."

Stay tuned fore more updates about Justified.