IT’S A FRIDAY MIRACLE!!!! Back in spring 2021, we heard that FX was adapting a new Elmore Leonard novel, City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit, with a big, fat “maybe” on Timothy Olyphant’s return as the coolest cat on TV, Raylan Givens. Well, FX has given a greenlight to the new show, officially titled Justified: City Primeval, and Timothy Olyphant WILL return as Raylan Givens. In fact, it sounds like even though the novel is centered on a different character, that Raylan will be the protagonist in the show, as he goes from Florida to Detroit to track down a fugitive known as “the Oklahoma Wildman”.
Obviously, I am ALWAYS HERE for more Justified. But I am SPECIFICALLY HERE for more Justified now that more people have found Justified and discovered how goddamn GOOD it is. And I am DEEPLY HERE for revisiting Raylan Givens several years down the line, when fatherhood and changing social mores may have challenged him. Like, Raylan is a trigger-happy cop. How is that going to play in 2022 and beyond, versus the early 2010s when the show originally ran?
Also, and arguably most importantly, who else from the original series will return? Will we check in on Rachel, running her own office now? What about whatever happened to that sassy bitch Tim Gutterson?! And how about survivalist criminal Wynn Duffy? I don’t need to see these characters in EVERY episode, but it would be wonderful to see them at some point or another, just to see how the world of Justified moved on without Raylan’s chaos infecting everything around him. And also to see how they cope if Raylan’s chaos once again starts infecting them. Can you imagine thinking you survived Hurricane Raylan, only to have him blow back into your life years later, with a whole new pot of trouble boiling over?
Raylan Givens is BACK, and I couldn’t be happier.
