Timothy Olyphant Reveals the ‘Justified’ Reasons to Bring Back Raylan Givens
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“We dug coal together.”
Timothy Olyphant closed out Justified in 2015 with those powerful final words, an ode to his character Raylan Givens’ complicated relationship with his home Harlan County, his longtime friend-turned-enemy Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), and even himself. For those who stuck through the FX modern Western’s six seasons, it was a perfect encapsulation of the journey: from the Bennetts to the Crowes and everyone in between — the legend of Drew Thompson to a stiff drink of Pappy Van Winkle — the Justified community dug coal together.
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Now, it’s time to head back to the mines.
Years after closing the door on the Kentucky-based crime drama, Raylan Givens returns in the form of limited series Justified: City Primeval. Taking its cues from Elmore Leonard’s celebrated novel City Primeval, the newest iteration of Justified bids farewell to Harlan, and all of Raylan’s old friends and foes, in favor of a new set of characters and a new city: Detroit, albeit filmed in Chicago.
For those familiar with the original Leonard tale, Raylan steps into the role of the book’s protagonist Raymond Cruz, in pursuit of a deadly killer known to some as the Oklahoma Wildman, but known on his birth certificate as Clement Mansell. Sandman and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny villain Boyd Holbrook steps into Clement’s wild shoes, going toe-to -at against Raylan, with a wide array of new players surrounding both men: Aunjanue Ellis as attorney Carolyn Wilder, Vondie Curtis Hall as barkeeper Sweety, Adelaide Clemens as con artist Sandy, and Olyphant’s own daughter Vivian Olyphant as Raylan’s teen daughter Willa, just to name a few.
In the original series, there was a constant refrain: “You’ll never leave Harlan alive.” But the very existence of the new series, premiering Tuesday with its first two episodes on FX and Hulu, makes the strong argument otherwise. Ahead, The Hollywood Reporter presents a conversation with Olyphant (conducted in June before the SAG-AFTRA strike) about Raylan’s return, exploring his own relationship with parenthood and the newest member of Raylan’s sprawling rogues gallery.
The Justified series finale closed things out so powerfully. Was there any hesitation about returning to Raylan’s world and impacting that ending?
That ending of the series years ago was such a special ending. If this one doesn’t work, we’ve got no one to blame but ourselves. I understand if people are saying, “What are you doing, dude? Why are you bringing him back? It was such a good ending!” But hopefully they’ll get a kick out of this one as well.
But we got to watch the first episode with a huge audience in Austin [at the ATX Festival], and the reaction was so great. It was so gratifying. They were right there with us from the jump. But my experience was the same one that I had with the writers, too. It’s a totally different cast. It’s a totally different world, and yet, it’s still the same show. It’s still the show. It was really gratifying to see an audience be right there with us.
The tonal continuity feels very intact. How much of that owes to the ethos of asking, “What would Elmore Leonard do?” Especially when this series directly adapts one of his novels.
We know the sandbox we’re playing in. Even when we’re coming up with ideas and storylines, we still know where it’s going to shift: it’s going to shift to this tone, to this world. That’s the game we’re playing. We had two really great ideas going for us. We had the book, that gave us something to jump start the conversation, and even anchored us at times. And then the writers had the idea of throwing Raylan’s kids in there. Those two things are the essential ingredients that make this thing work.
It’s very similar to what made the original series worked. It was the Elmore Leonard material that started us, and then it was what [original Justified creator Graham Yost] invented. It was the father, it was the ex-wife. These were the things that made the stakes high, the things that made Raylan relatable, and not just cool. I think that’s what made it great television.
In Justified, so much was centered on Raylan’s fraught relationship with his father, Arlo (Raymond J. Barry). Now, Raylan’s the father, with your daughter in the role of… your daughter.
When we first started talking about the idea of bringing Raylan’s teenage daughter into the story, we did not see my teenage kid playing that part. But once we started putting the show on its feet, the parallels were a little… unsettling, to say the least. (Laughs.) Raylan’s daugther and my daughter? Both of them, not that impressed. Seemingly, not that intimidated. Both of them really have his number. They see right through his bullshit. We didn’t see that coming!
What did you discover about Raylan by revisiting the character as a parent?
The scenes with [his daughter] were so refreshing. You have a character who just rolls her eyes at the guy. We don’t often see that. It was very funny, putting him in that spot; seeing him have to be patient, have to listen… seeing Raylan have to really listen. I really enjoyed that side of the character. The fact that it was my kid doing the work, it was very memorable to say the least.
The villains on Justified are always so memorable. What makes this one, Holbrook’s Clement Mansell, stack up with some of the greats from the Justified rogues gallery?
We got very lucky, across the board. The cast is ridiculous. We’re dealing with a deep bench. I could go on about each one of them. Just driving around with Victor Williams [who plays Detroit cop Wendell], I could have done that for hours. I could have been in a car with him for so long. We had this great chemistry. I loved everybody involved here.
As far as Holbrook’s concerned, it was really great. We found a really sweet spot. There’s a charm to him that I really like. Holbrook is a class act. He’s a wonderful guy, and a real talent. It was fun to work with him. He brings a weight and a menace that I felt we didn’t always achieve in the show with the quote-unquote “bad guys.” You really feel like this guy could fuck Raylan up. That’s the sandbox we want to be in. It’s very gratifying to feel like we got there. He brings such a different energy than what we had prior to the show. I’m not sure we ever had someone quite like him in the show.
But I remember being a little concerned, though: “If I’m cool, and he’s cool… is this going to work?” (Laughs.)
Interview edited for length and clarity.
Justified: City Primeval premieres July 18 with its first two episodes on FX and Hulu, followed by a weekly release.
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