Earlier today, iconic novelist and screenwriter, Elmore Leonard passed away at the age of 87. Leonard left behind a rich legacy in film and on TV, especially with the hit FX series, “Justified.”
While speaking with Deadline,“Justified” showrunner Graham Yost shared his thoughts on Leonard’s passing. “It’s hard even when you know it’s coming, and we knew,” said Yost. “Once he had the stroke – it was a left brain stroke, and he was really was non verbal after – we got an update every day or two on how it was looking. It was pretty clear that it wasn’t looking good.”
Yost added that a tribute to Leonard had already been planned for the “Justified” Season 4 DVD and “I’m sure we’ll do something on the first episode of the new season… Before he had his stroke we were thinking, you know, we’re headed to end of the series, we’ve maybe got two seasons left – so we wanted to bring in the Crowe family which is a big part of his world. We’ve got Dewey Crowe on the show but there are other Crowes that populated his books and we thought it would be fun to focus on that.”
Regarding the “Raylan” novella that Leonard released in 2012, Yost said that “Leonard thought being an executive producer he should contribute something, and he thought that was the best way to contribute. One story turned into three, and turned into his novel Raylan.”
Leonard’s untimely passing means that his plans to write another Raylan novel will never come to pass. “It’s sad that we won’t get to see that,” related Yost.
“Justified” Season 5 is expected to return to FX in January 2014.
