FX wrapped its “Justified” revival this week, and with the end of ‘City Primeval’ came not just a very welcome surprise but also an obvious setup for a second season should it go forward.
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR “JUSTIFIED: CITY PRIMEVAL” FINALE
Co-showrunner Michael Dinner recently sat down with TV Line to talk about the events in the episode’s coda and the show’s potential renewal’s chances.
First up, he confirms actor Walton Goggins told a white lie during press rounds for “The Righteous Gemstones” in order to keep his brief return as Boyd Crowder in the episode’s final moments under wraps.
In the scenes, Boyd orchestrates a successful prison escape and, in doing so, potentially lures Raylan Givens out of his just begun retirement. Dinner says the cameo was included for fun, and the key thing they didn’t want to do is to avoid the now cliche “Manhunter”-style ‘consult the imprisoned nemesis’ scene:
“What we didn’t want to do is have the scene where Raylan ‘can’t understand’ Mansell, so in the middle of the episodes he goes to talk to ‘the Hannibal Lecter character'” – imprisoned Boyd Crowder to say, ‘I don’t understand the bad guy! Tell me about him!’.
David [Andron, co-showrunner]’s pitch to me was, ‘It’s the elephant in the room, everybody’s gonna be wondering, ‘Where’s Walton?’ So let’s just do it and have fun with it at the end.’ That was the intention.
We then sent it to Walton, and he loved it. He was actually the first one to say, ‘Welllll, you knowwww… if we have a good time… he’s out there in the world, isn’t he? We can always do another rodeo.
It was so great to have him back, and with both him and Tim, I think their performances are fantastic… just seeing [Walton] do this again, and seeing the character after spending time in prison, it was a ball.”
Goggins reportedly filmed his scenes in a brief 36-hour window he had due to his obligations to other projects. As such, the ending suggests that another season is quite possible, but according to THR there are no active plans for one at present – even though there are ideas being bandied about by the producers.
