SPOILERS for Justified: City Primeval. Timothy Olyphant returned as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens for a new Justified series based on Elmore Leonard’s crime novel City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit. While the story of Justified: City Primeval was largely self-contained, it did leave a pretty big door open for a possible season 2 featuring the return of a fan-favourite character.
In the closing moments of the Justified: City Primeval finale, we catch up with none other than Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), who is able to escape from prison after faking an illness and seducing a guard. While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Justified: City Primeval showrunners Michael Dinner and Dave Andron were asked if this meant that a second season was in the works.
“Everybody would like to, but it’s up to the network,” Dinner said. “Because it’s not about City Primeval, we would only want to do it if it advanced where we were in the original show. I think we could do that, but it’s up to the network. Walton’s interested, and Tim’s interested, and we think there’s another chapter in Raylan’s life, but what are the needs of FX?“
A massive manhunt for Boyd would make for a great story, but Andron added that it would also be about how the two characters have evolved over the last decade.
Boyd’s out in the world, Raylan is “retired,” Ava’s out in the world, Boyd doesn’t know where she is, and he has a son that he doesn’t know about. But if he escaped from prison, everybody’d be after him. So certainly there’s stuff there, it’s kind of a classic Western. It would really be the story of where it began: Two guys who mined coal together when they were 18. There is a final chapter, if we decide to go down that road, but on the other hand, to leave it open-ended — did he pick up the phone or not — is pretty cool.
Andron continued, “For me, it’s always been the story of these two guys. As lovely as that final scene in the original was between Raylan and Boyd, it was a scene that was about a lie: Raylan saying Ava’s dead to protect her and keep the child safe. And that is epic story fodder for Boyd to find that out. So how has Raylan and how has Boyd evolved in the last 10 years and what is it like when they come together now? How different is it? How has fatherhood changed both of these men and changed their relationships?“
While the pair wanted to make sure that Justified: City Primeval was its own thing, Andron admitted that not including Walton Goggins would have been a shame. He pitched the return of Boyd as an “exclamation point” on Raylan’s story. “It’s just that Elmore Leonard nudge of him putting down his badge and gun and saying, I think I’m done with this,’” Andron said. “The fun, cool, Elmore version is, ‘You’re done? You think so? Well, now your arch nemesis is out of jail. What do you do now?’ It’s just the fun thing of the dance is going to keep going.” Thankfully, Walton Goggins was game to return and shot his scenes in just a day and a half, but it also involved lying to just about everyone who asked if he would be returning.
Would you like to see Justified: City Primeval season 2 with Walton Goggins back as Boyd Crowder?