THE WALKING DEAD
The eye of the tiger…
SEASON 7 US BROADCAST AMC from 23 October UK BROADCAST Fox from 24 October
returning SHOW! After introducing Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s baseball-wielding antagonist negan in the season finale, what does the adaptation of robert Kirkman’s zombie-filled comic book do for an encore? According to Kirkman, it gets downright animalistic, introducing two more fan favourite characters – ezekiel and his pet tiger Shiva.
“We were reaching that point where ezekiel is in the storyline so it was just a natural progression,” says Kirkman. “As we move through the storyline, we’ll be bringing more characters in, and some characters will arrive later. there will definitely be other characters that you can see this season and some surprises coming but right now it’s all about ezekiel and Shiva.”
to Kirkman’s clear relief, Shiva will be a visual effects creation. “[executive producer] gale [Anne Hurd] pointed out that it’s not particularly humane to have a live tiger on set, and is also very dangerous for the actors. So i was like, ‘great, no real tiger. i can still come to set. that sounds awesome!’ Because i would not have gone to set if there had been a real tiger anywhere near set. So there’s no real tiger involved. it’s all magic!”
executive producer Dave Alpert tells SFX that, like so much of The Walking Dead, ezekiel and Shiva’s introduction on the show will differ from its depiction in print. “that’s not going to play out exactly the same as it did in the comic. there’ll be a lot of swerves.”