Here's a ‘Justified: City Primeval’ Easter Egg Only Real Fans Will Know
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FX's highly anticipated Justified reboot, Justified: City Primeval has arrived, with a whole new cast of characters (except for U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, of course). And one of the most significant of those is Willa Givens, Raylan's 15-year-old daughter.
But who plays Willa? Where else have we seen her? And dang, didn't they do a good job casting an actor who looks like she could be Timothy Olyphant's (Raylan) daughter?
Well, meet Vivian Olyphant, 20. And while this is her acting debut, there's a reason she looks kind of familiar. If you haven't put two and two together yet, she is Timothy Olyphant's daughter — his youngest child with wife Alexis Knief. Beyond the family resemblance (she's got her daddy's eyes, fans noted on Instagram), the pairing makes for some super-authentic father-daughter moments this season.
Here's everything we know about the rising star:
She caught the acting bug early.
That's according to a hilarious anecdote her father shared more than a decade ago in an interview on Conan. Timothy had been nominated for an Emmy for outstanding lead actor for his role on Justified, and as he and his wife got ready for the big event, then-8-year-old Vivian practiced her own Emmy acceptance speech in the mirror: “Listen, I know I’m an amazing actress. But please, don’t, don’t give it to me. Give it to my father. He’s worked so hard. ”
Currently, she studies her craft at William Esper Studio in New York, and yes, she had to audition for her debut role.
She's a singer-songwriter too.
Before making the switch to study acting, Vivian attended Berklee College of Music her freshman year to study songwriting, according to Who What Wear. And her musical inclinations started early too: "I began songwriting to spice up my childhood piano lessons," she told Nylon. She just released her first single, “Lil More Reason” (video below), which she wrote the summer after her freshman year while filming Justified: City Primeval.
She and her siblings seem super, adorably close.
Vivian has given Instagram shoutouts to her older sister, Grace, for styling her, while her brother, Hank, designed the cover art for her single.
Her sense of humor runs in the family.
Her father is legendary for his wry sense of humor, while her mom has been known to plot hilarious stunts behind the scenes. During filming for Justified: City Primeval, Vivian did not pull back from ribbing on her dad, the star and an executive producer on the show. Reportedly, she asked the cast and crew to vote for their "favorite Olyphant," Timothy told Late Night With Seth Meyers. (Spoiler: She won.)
Her character, Willa, links the original Justified to the new series.
(Minor episode 1 spoilers ahead.)
We've been wondering how Justified creators would pull off the new storyline after they so neatly tied up all the loose ends in the original Justified series in 2015. Though both series are based on crime novels by the late Elmore Leonard, Raylan Givens was not a character in the book City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit, which the new season is based on. Not to mention, Detroit is a big leap from Raylan's usual haunts, the Kentucky hollers and Miami.
Willa, who was only a newborn in the final season of the original, provides a point of continuity — specifically Raylan's ongoing struggle to balance his dangerous life as a U.S. Marshal and his personal life.
In the new series, we pick up with Raylan and a teenaged Willa (played by Vivian) on a road trip to drop her off at camp, though she just wants to spend the summer with her dad. Why is that impossible? We find out when his job quite literally collides with his fatherly duties in a chance encounter that sends them both on a detour to Detroit.
The first two of eight episodes of Justified: City Primeval premiere on FX on Tuesday, July 18. New episodes air Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FX and are available to stream the next day on Hulu. (And, don't forget to catch up on all six seasons of the original Justified too.)
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