Summary

Justified fans may have the opportunity to see Raylan and Boyd reunite in a future sequel, as both Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins have expressed interest in returning. The showrunners of Justified: City Primeval intentionally left a cliffhanger involving Boyd’s escape, hinting at a potential reunion between Raylan and Boyd in a future installment. While a follow-up to Justified would bring Raylan and Boyd back together, it could potentially undo the poignant final scene they shared in the series finale.

Raylan Givens only thought he was retiring. The finale of Justified: City Primeval is surely only the beginning. For fans of the original Justified series, Primeval’s The Question finally brings Boyd Crowder back and into the follow-up’s fray — well, its next-to-last sequence at any rate. And for both stars Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins, they’re ready to return for more iterations of Justified. Justified: City Primeval’s co-showrunner, Michael Dinner, addressed the real possibility of Raylan (Olyphant) and Boyd (Goggins) reuniting in the future. Dinner said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:

“Everybody would like to, but it’s up to the network. 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?”

The only problem with Boyd’s return to conclude Justified: City Primeval is that Goggins and Olyphant don’t share a scene together. But that feels like a deliberate decision by the showrunners Dinner and Dave Andron to whet fans’ appetites. Even though Primeval ends resolved, Dinner and Andron drop a massive cliffhanger that clearly foreshadows the tumultuous reunion of Raylan and Boyd in some future sequel to the Justified legacy. Boyd escapes the Tramble Penitentiary during a prisoner transfer and is apparently headed to Mexico for a little fun in the sun. Raylan receives the text alert on his phone that Boyd has escaped, but he just lets his phone ring when the Marshal’s office tries to reach out to him. And the stage is set for more Justified.

Related: Justified: City Primeval: Differences Between the New Series and Original

The Future Beyond Justified: City Primeval
Justified: City Primeval Release Date July 18, 2023 Cast Timothy Olyphant, Boyd Holbrook, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Adelaide Clemens Genres Crime, Drama Rating TV-MA
Justified: City Primeval’s finale titled The Question reveals Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) seemingly retiring, but that happens before he hears of Boyd Crowder’s (Goggins) escape. Everyone clearly wants to return and continue the Justified legacy, but what would a follow-up to Justified: City Primeval look like. Co-showrunner Dave Andron offered his two cents on the matter. Andron said in the same interview with EW:

“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 would 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.”

Bringing Raylan and Boyd back together does have one unwanted aftereffect, though, as it would undo that beautiful final scene the characters share together in the Justified series finale. During their last conversation, while the villain is safely locked away, Boyd sums up his and Raylan’s complicated relationship in four little words: “We dug coal together.” Until FX decides to greenlight another sequel to Justified, fans can check out that poignant and revealing scene between Raylan and Boyd from the series finale below: