“As they say in the Bible, you’re screwed.” – Raylan Givens and his hat (which already got dusty on a Detroit street) and swagger are officially back.
As seen in the above trailer for Justified: City Primeval, those words come from Elmore Leonard’s arguably most beloved protagonist of all time, and we are blessed enough to soon see Timothy Olyphant return in his most infamous role as everyone’s favorite U.S. Marshal. Heck, even fugitives can’t stop themselves from gasping (as I recently discussed about an essential-rewatch episode of Justified) at the very sight of this cowboy out of water.
We’ve already heard about how this revival will begin about fifteen years after Raylan left Harlan County’s hollers. Yet now, he’s been plucked out of Miami in pursuit of the “new Boyd” (as previously described to Entertainment Weekly) — Clement Mansell, “a.k.a. The Oklahoma Wildman, a violent, sociopathic desperado who’s already slipped through the fingers of Detroit’s finest once.”
In the above trailer, we get a better look at Clement Mansell. He’s portrayed by Boyd Holbrook, who knows a thing or two about self-assured swagger from a lawman’s POV through his Narcos tenure and has also been celebrated for his performance as The Corinthian in Netflix’s recent The Sandman TV adaptation. Holbrook has shown himself to be capable of charismatic and layered performances, and we’ll soon see what he’s got here.
Let’s take a few guesses at how Mansell might fare against quick-draw Raylan Givens from these trailer screencaps. Granted, these are wild stabs in the dark because this is a sliced-and-diced selection of moments from the season — such is the nature of a trailer — but let’s do this anyway. Does this guy seem like the “new Boyd,” and how screwed is he?
First up, the guy apparently wears tighty whities, which negates any attempt to look tough, even while wielding a firearm. Also, I have to wonder about the symbolic nature of the bird tattoos on his chest. Does he legit have the Oklahoma state bird, the scissor-tailed flycatcher, on his chest? It looks that way (?), but don’t take my word for it. Still, we’re not seeing a swastika like Boyd sported, which is always a plus for any human being. However, Mansell may have signed his own death certificate with this move:
That would be Willa Givens, the 15-year-old daughter of Winona and Raylan, who looks to be enjoying the act of making her dad feel uncomfortable after their road trip got cancelled. (Willa is played by Timothy Olyphant’s real-life daughter, Vivian, in what amounts to a sweet summer job.) After Mansell moves to put his arm around Willa, Raylan looks as furious as I’ve ever seen him. In fact, there might be a little Seth Bullock in him now. Clearly, he wants to rip Mansell’s head off right there in the middle of the restaurant, but even Raylan can’t get that extralegal without being, you know, justified.
I can’t even begin to guess how Mansell will fully measure up as a villain until watching the show, but I will say that these two hints do not bode well for him. As well, producers have hinted that even though Raylan made it out of Harlan alive, he might not leave Detroit alive. This seems like an unthinkable outcome, but Raylan will be about five years from mandatory retirement age for U.S. Marshals when City Primeval picks up. Would he be capable of retiring, at all, and would he rather go out doing what he loves?
Surely, Raylan will want to live for his daughter. Yet if he has to die, I’d be pretty upset if it’s all down to Tighty-Whitey Man, but who knows?
Based on what I’ve seen here, Clement Mansell should be much more worried than he appears to be. However, Raylan might want to watch out for Mansell’s attorney, for whom (as the trailer and below description suggest) his judgment might be clouded. (On the plus side, hey, Raylan takes his shirt off, but he also loses the hat, which could remove his Marshal superpowers.)
From the official FX description of this revival:
A chance encounter on a desolate Florida highway sends him to Detroit. There he crosses paths with Clement Mansell, aka The Oklahoma Wildman, a violent, sociopathic desperado who’s already slipped through the fingers of Detroit’s finest once and aims to do so again. Mansell’s lawyer, formidable Motor City native Carolyn Wilder, has every intention of representing her client, even as she finds herself caught in between cop and criminal, with her own game afoot as well. These three characters set out on a collision course in classic Elmore Leonard fashion, to see who makes it out of the City Primeval alive.
Justified: City Primeval premieres on July 18 for viewers at home. This will follow the world debut on June 1-4 at Austin’s ATX TV Festival.
