Raylan Givens has become one of novelist Elmore Leonard's most popular creations thanks in large part to Timothy Olyphant's portrayal of the character across six seasons of the crime drama Justified. He's so popular that the Justified team thought putting Givens in a Leonard story that he previously wasn't in could be a fun "mash-up" for fans. That is how we are getting Justified: City Primeval.
Arriving as a limited series, Justified: City Primeval picks up with Raylan Givens years after the conclusion of Justified. While living in Miami with his daughter, a chance encounter takes Givens to Detroit, where he quickly becomes embroiled with the Oklahoma Wildman and his defense attorney.
In an interview with TVLine where Olyphant is discussing the upcoming series (Justified: City Primeval joins the summer TV lineup on July 18 on FX), it's noted that Raylan Givens is not even in the book that the new limited series is based on, City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit. But executive producer Michael Dinner explained they saw potential to combine two popular Leonard properties.
"We thought it would be cool to do this mashup of the character we knew and this book Elmore wrote," Dinner is quoted by TVLine.
City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit was originally written in 1980 and is about the epic faceoff between a dedicated Detroit cop and the psychopathic Oklahoma Wildman. The book was written 13 years before Leonard first created Raylan Givens in the 1993 book Pronto.
City Primeval was almost made as its own stand-alone movie, first by The Wild Bunch director Sam Peckinpah and then by Quentin Tarantino, according to Dinner in a separate Entertainment Weekly interview, but things never came together. A fun aside, Tarantino was reportedly in early talks to direct some episodes of Justified: City Primeval, but it did not materialize (the director is a bit busy making what may very well be his final movie, The Movie Critic).
So now, the highly praised work from Leonard is going to be coming to screen with Raylan Givens taking the place of the original detective.
In addition to Olyphant reprising his role as Givens, Justified: City Primeval, stars Boyd Holbrook as the Oklahoma Wildman, Aunjanue Ellis as defense attorney Caroly Wilder and Vivian Olyphant, Timothy Olyphant's daughter, who is playing Willa Givens.
Justified: City Primeval premieres on Tuesday, July 18, on FX. Episodes will be made available to stream on Hulu the day after it airs.
