Below are spoilers for the season finale of Justified: City Primeval.
Summary
A cameo by Loretta McCready, a character from the second season of Justified, was originally intended to be used in the Primitive City finale, but was ultimately cut. Executive Producer Michael Dinner explains that it didn’t make sense to include Loretta’s character in the ending. The production team wanted to find a way to include Loretta in the Detroit storyline, but were unable to implement it.
Executive Producer Michael Dinner reveals a Justified Season 2 character whose cameo was cut from the Justified: City Primeval finale. After an eight-year absence from television, U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, played by Timothy Olyphant, is finally back this year for one last adventure. Shifting the action to the city of Detroit, FX’s “Justified” reboot saw Givens face a new villain in Boyd Holbrook’s Clement Mansell, but did not include other fan-favorite characters from the show, such as Walton Goggins’ Boyd Crowder. This glaring lack of historical figures ended at the end of Primitive City when Crowder finally appeared in the film alongside Winona (Natalie Zea), Gregg Sutter (David Koechner), and Dan Grant (Matt Craven).
Those finale cameos were definitely a welcome return, but according to EP Dinner, another character almost returned, revealing on a Prestige TV podcast (via TVLine) that the Loretta McCready character was originally planned to be included. Season 2 of Justified. “We tried to think of how Loretta could be part of the story we created in Detroit … just because we love the actress,” Dinner said, but unfortunately, such an appearance would not bring “any results.” meaning,” according to Dinner, and it wouldn’t be “organic” to the story. Loretta Devera played a large role in the second season’s action, becoming an adopted child after her father’s murder and seeking revenge on her father’s killers, but she only appeared occasionally in later seasons.
How cameos in Primal City could set up a new season of Justified
Justified: City Primeval was introduced as a standalone story with no connection to the rest of the series other than Raylan Givens himself. The show actually lived up to that promise until the last scenes of the finale, when Raylan’s old enemy Boyd Crowder was seen escaping prison with the help of an accomplice, and the retired Givens was seen receiving an urgent phone call about Crowder.
All of this seems to be setting up a new season of Justified, in which Givens emerges from his (short-lived) retirement and sets off in search of his old enemy. The show’s next season hasn’t been officially announced yet, but the last chance will allow Raylan and Boyd to face one last time, making it feel more like the end of the series. Perhaps other historical figures, such as Loretta, who almost had a chance to return in Justified: City Primeval, could also be included in the story organically and sensibly.
Source: Prestige TV Podcast (via TVLine)