That happy squeal you heard in the early morning hours of January 14, 2022 was Justified fans reacting to FX’s Justified: City Primeval news. Timothy Olyphant is on board to reprise his Justified role as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens in a limited series inspired by Elmore Leonard’s City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit. (Justified was based on Leonard’s Fire in the Hole novella.)
The FX limited series reunites the team behind Justified which had a six-season run on FX, concluding in April 2015. Over the course of its six seasons Justified won two Emmy Awards, two Critics Choice Awards, a Peabody, and was named TV program of the year by the AFI Awards in 2012.
Dave Andron and Michael Dinner will write, executive produce, and guide the limited series as showrunners. Dinner is also confirmed to direct. Additional executive producers include Timothy Olyphant, Graham Yost, Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly, Peter Leonard, writer Taylor Elmore, and writer Chris Provenzano. V.J. Boyd, Eisa Davis and Ingrid Escajeda are writers.
“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,” said Eric Schrier, President, FX Entertainment. “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.”
“When Justified concluded, the love and affection for this exceptional series only grew and left audiences craving more Raylan Givens. The iconic Elmore Leonard was one of the premier authors of our time and no one has quite captured his tone and authenticity as well as this Justified team,” stated President of Sony Pictures Television Studios, Jeff Frost and Co-President, Jason Clodfelter. “We look forward to experiencing the magic again of Tim, Graham, Dave, Michael and our preeminent executive producer team. We are so thrilled to be continuing this remarkable ride with our partners at FX.”
Justified: City Primeval is produced by Sony Pictures Television and FX Productions.
FX released the following synopsis of the limited series:
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.
