Justified Returns… But Without Boyd — Walton Goggins Explains His Absence

A very familiar frenemy will be MIA — and thus clear of of Raylan Givens’ crosshairs — when FX’s Justified: City Primeval limited series airs tonight through Aug. 29.

Inspired by the late Elmore Leonard’s crime novel City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit, the sequel series sends Raylan (played again by Timothy Olyphant) to Detroit, where he crosses paths with Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook), a sociopath also known as “The Oklahoma Wildman.”

Raylan thus will have his hands quite full for the eight-episode limited series.

Walton Goggins, who played career criminal Boyd Crowder throughout the original Justified‘s six-season, 2010-’15 run, told TheWrap that the decision for him not to reprise his villainous role was not “one-sided,” adding: “There’s a season, kind of, for everything” and, “This isn’t the right place and time.”

Even so, “I can’t wait to see it, and I can’t wait to see Raylan Givens again,” Goggins said. “Tim [Olyphant] is such a wonderful actor and Boyd Holbrook — I love him.

“I’ll be there. I’ll be watching it to the bitter end,” Goggins added. (Updated: Get scoop on how the finale wound up updating us on Boyd.)

The cast for Justified: City Primeval also includes Aunjanue Ellis (Lovecraft Country) as legal eagle Carolyn Wilder, Adelaide Clemens (Rectify) as Mansell’s girlfriend Sandy, Marin Ireland (Sneaky Pete), Norbert Leo Butz (Bloodline) and Victor Williams (The Affair) as Detroit police detectives, and Vondie Curtis-Hall (For the People) as a storied bar owner. (Read our review.)

Want scoop on Justified: City Primeval, or for any other show? Email InsideLine@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.