The Walking Dead: Robert Kirkman on Why He Created Shiva the Tiger

While the primary topic regarding October’s The Walking Dead Season 7 premiere remains Negan’s controversial cliffhanger mystery victim, a teaser clip dropped back in July at Comic-Con managed to steer the conversation a bit by offering the first glimpse of a badass dreadlocked dude sitting on a throne next to his giant pet tiger. Indeed, the introduction of comic book fan favorite Ezekiel and his powerful pet protector Shiva single-handedly turned The Walking Dead dial up to 11. Yet, according to creator Robert Kirkman their creation was actually a challenge to the show.

In an interview with EW, the creator of the The Walking Dead franchise himself, Robert Kirkman discusses the mindset in which he originally concocted the enigmatic apocalypse “King” Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and his Hindu-god-named sidekick Shiva. The crucial concept in Kirkman’s story is that at the time Ezekiel was introduced in the pages of The Walking Dead comic book in Issue 108, which hit on March 13, 2013, the television series was already in the middle of Season 3 dealing with the Governor and Woodbury. Thus, at this point in the comic lore, just about everything he did had to consider eventual effects on the show. According to Kirkman:

“Well, I’ll say I’m really excited about Ezekiel and Shiva getting into the show because that’s probably the wildest swing I took in the comics. You know, a guy who has a pet tiger [and] who speaks like some kind of weird medieval king is pretty strange, and I have to be honest, when I was writing the comic, I was like, “Hell yeah, let’s see how we handle this tiger in the show! This is going to be difficult!” So to actually get to this point where we are adapting it into the show and to see the show expand in this way that the comic did in the past is pretty cool.”

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Certainly, the idea of a tiger roaming and ravaging in the midst of a zombie apocalypse scenario is probably one of the most anachronistic (reality-based) concepts one could imagine, perhaps save for animals in the pachyderm order. However, even those who might not be acquainted with the comic dynamic between Ezekiel (who leads a group of survivors known as the Kingdom,) and his tiger Shiva, have been apprised of its poignancy in interviews. Even Ezekiel actor Khary Payton himself has stated that she is a “powerful symbol” and “the beginning and the end for Ezekiel.” Yet, all of that hinged on the practical task of bringing Shiva (a product of CGI and animatronics,) to life. As Kirkman explains:

“You can’t have a fake tiger, because you know that’s not going to work. This is a very real world and if Shiva doesn’t walk on screen, and look like this amazing real tiger that’s existing amongst these characters, it’s going to be more farfetched than it is in and of itself. So you really have to sell it. You really have to have this deadly, terrifying creature coexisting with these people, and it has been a Herculean task to make sure that we get it right.”

Lauding the "Herculean task" of executive producer and effects wizard Greg Nicotero and his visual effects team, Kirkman adds:

“I’m very happy with how it’s turning out. You can see in the trailer, it absolutely looks amazing. You wouldn’t, you know, think we had a real tiger on set, but thankfully we don’t or else I would never go to set again.

Kirkman also affirms the idea that the introduction of both Ezekiel and Shiva represents “a very pivotal benchmark” in the mythology, marking major tonal divergences as the conflict between Rick’s group and Negan’s Saviors evolves and escalates. While we last saw Rick and 10 other unlucky members of his group on their knees waiting for one to be brutally executed, an “All Out War,” is already starting to take shape based on what we’re seeing in the trailers and that voraciously frightening tiger will certainly help in that effort.

The Walking Dead makes its high-impact, paradigm-pushing return on AMC on October 23.