FX announced a Justified revival was underway at the beginning of 2021 and that Timothy Olyphant would reprise his role as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens. News broke that Kill Bill director Quentin Tarantino is being courted by the series to direct.
The Justified revival will continue to follow U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens eight years after the ending of the original series. The original is based on a character created by Elmore Leonard in his novels and short stories and the revival will continue to use his stories for inspiration. The new series will be based on Leonard's novel City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit.
The next installment in the series will focus on Kentucky native Raylan's new life in Miami, where he must juggle his responsibilities as a Marshal with those of being the father of a teenage girl, which isn't exactly the kind of story one would associate with Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill director Tarantino. However, Deadline reports Tarantino is in talks to direct an episode or two of the upcoming series. While Justified has wit, devious characters, and mild violence, it is nothing remotely akin to the films that Tarantino is known to create.
Tarantino is no stranger to the work of Leonard, as his film Jackie Brown is based on the Leonard novel Rum Punch. Additionally, Olyphant and Tarantino previously worked together on 2019's Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, so there would be some familiarity between the star and the director that could pay off on-screen. However, Tarantino's interpretation of material is known to be very frank and bloody, which the original Justified series was not. The series' talks with Tarantino may hint at a new direction for the revival.
Justifies was very popular during its original run on FX and was mainly driven by the complicated but endearing relationship between Givens and criminal mastermind Boyd Crowder, played by Walton Goggins. There is no news of Goggins returning to the revival, so the next chapter in the series will have to find its own story and driving force. It is safe to assume that, if he accepts the job, Tarantino will leave his own mark on the Justified series, and it is interesting to wonder what that mark may look like. Perhaps, the revival of the series is going for an edgier aesthetic than its previous installment, for which the hiring of Tarantino makes perfect sense.
Justified: City of Primeval is currently in development.
Source: Deadline