Timothy Olyphant (Hitman), who was on Justified, closed the doors on his character with his final words “We dug coal together” in memory of the tumultuous bond his character Raylan Givens had with Harlan County, his friend turned enemy Boyd Crowder, and even the conflict within himself. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series that ran on FX for six seasons encompassed this central story of the Crows and Bennetts, the legacy of Drew Thompson with a drink of Pappy Van Winkle, and the Justified community who all together dug coal.
The story is making a return as the mini-series Justified: City Primeval brings back Raylan Givens in a new crime drama in the good old state of Kentucky. Based off the Elmore Leonard (Raylan) novel City Primeval, this new mini-series will shine light on Harlan and Raylan’s old friends and enemies. The show will also take place in a different city, Detroit, and welcome new characters along the way. The show was filmed in Chicago, disguising itself as the new story location of Detroit.
In the original series Justified, the reoccurring phrase “You’ll never leave Harlan alive,” was always brought up. However, with the new series on its way, premiering Tuesday with the first two episodes coming out on Hulu and FX, this phrase may be negated. Olyphant was asked about Raylan’s return to which he replied, “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.” The actor also added, “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.”
Photo credit: Jeff Cohen