Last year, Timothy Olyphant reprised his role as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens in Justified: City Primeval, one of the best shows on FX and Hulu in 2023. The eight-episode miniseries was a follow-up to Justified, which ran for six seasons on FX from 2010 to 2015. While Justified was based on Elmore Leonard’s Fire in the Hole, City Primeval was based on a separate story by Leonard that didn’t originally feature Raylan. It was reworked for television as a Justified sequel with Raylan as the main character.
Following the conclusion of the miniseries, fans have been asking about Justified: City Primeval season 2, especially since the ending leaves the door wide open for a major reunion from Justified. But don’t get too excited just yet. We’re sharing everything we know about Justified: City Primeval season 2, and it’s not all good news. But the early word is at least encouraging.
Has Justified: City Primeval been renewed for season 2?
No. Or at least not yet. City Primeval wasn’t designed to run for multiple seasons and it was envisioned as a miniseries from the start. That doesn’t mean that there can’t be more seasons, especially given the ending. But since the story of City Primeval has now been finished, any potential second season would likely take a new name from another one of Leonard’s novels.
Why do fans want to see Justified: City Primeval season 2?
City Primeval‘s finale played like it could have been the definitive ending for Raylan’s story. He survived his experiences in Detroit, and decided to retire from the U.S. Marshals in favor of spending more time with his daughter, Willa (Vivian Olyphant).
And that would have worked as a conclusion if the show hadn’t sprung a surprise appearance by Raylan’s old nemesis, Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins). Within minutes of his return, Boyd escaped from custody and went on the run with a female guard whom he seduced. Back in Florida, Raylan’s phone rang with the news, but he declined to answer the call. If there is a second season, it would presumably put Raylan on the trail of Boyd.
Do Olyphant and Goggins want to return?
Olyphant confirmed his interest in another return during an interview with ScreenRant.
“I have no idea, but if somebody told me that they wanted to do it, I’d give it the old college try to try to come up with something good,” said Olyphant. “I stay in touch with everybody, and we’d get together and say, ‘We should do something,’ but it was hard to find the spark of what that thing was going to be. The book [City Primeval] provided the spark, and I remember thinking like, ‘If we can get the book, we could do a season, we could do a couple,’ because once we get everyone back together, the conversation starts… We also don’t have the pressure of coming back right away every season the way a TV show does.”
Olyphant also noted Goggins is still up for more.
“I would love it,” added Olyphant. “I know Walton would love to do it. The fact that they let the writers put that sort of cliffhanger at the end of this, I assume that means they’re interested, but I don’t know. We probably spent way too much money.”
Goggins told Uproxx that the entire Justified team is looking forward to additional stories.
“I think everybody – all the players involved – want another lap,” said Goggins. “I didn’t anticipate that, and it took a while to kind of jump back into that. But once we did it, we kind of kept it from everybody. I had such a good time, and I think Tim was inspired. And there is more to say, actually. I didn’t think there was, but there is. Everything is in line. I think everybody’s just waiting for schedules and FX to say, ‘Go.’ We’ll see. We’ll see what happens.”
Back in March, Goggins shared a picture of himself with Olyphant in Thailand, where they reunited while filming The White Lotus and FX’s Alien TV series, respectively. If we had to hazard a guess, it’s not a question if these two will work together again, it’s a question of when.
