Why Justified: City Primeval's Showrunner Calls It A 'Mashup' And Not A Reboot
"Justified: City Primeval" won't star many familiar faces from the original series. Furthermore, the story will see U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) relocate from Kentucky to Miami to Detroit in search of a brand-new ruthless villain. That said, while the FX show is poised to redefine the "Justified" universe in some ways, it isn't a reboot by any means.
While speaking to Entertainment Weekly, co-showrunner Michael Dinner explained that "Justified: City Primeval" isn't a traditional continuation of Givens' story, but viewers can expect a "mashup" series that honors Elmore Leonard's "City Primeval" novel. "We didn't intend to reboot Justified, we didn't intend to pick up where we left off, but we thought it would be interesting to, what I call, 'do a mashup,' Dinner said. "What if we took our character and dropped him into the middle of this story, and yet pay homage to a character that was in the book and also do service to the book?"
The good news, though, is that "Justified" fans will still get to see Givens unleash his brand of Old West-style justice on bad people. At the same time, the series will also add fresh elements to the noble lawman and question his place in the world.
Justified: City Primeval is an 'existential story'
Eventually, there comes a time when every gunslinger must fire their final shot. Westerns have long been fascinated by stories about legendary cowboys who are aging and coming to grips with their mortality as the world advances around them. "Justified: City Primeval" will incorporate some of these themes into Raylan Givens' story, as well.
"He's older and wiser, but he's still got it," Michael Dinner told Entertainment Weekly. "He has about five years before there's a mandatory retirement in the Marshal service, so he's coming to the end of that life. The road in front of this guy is a lot shorter than the road behind. We're dealing with this next chapter of his life — we did Justified for six or seven years, and that was kind of like Act 1. This is Act 2 of his life, and it's an existential story."
This echoes statements that Dinner previously made about the upcoming series. The showrunner said that "Justified: City Primeval" has a 'grown-up' tone compared to the original, especially in regard to its exploration of hot-button topics such as law enforcement. Fans can still look forward to Givens' administering his own ethical code, but the world around him might not be receptive to it.