The Walking Dead returned for its new Season 7 Premiere and we are still shock on who Negan beat to death with his baseball bat, Lucille. However, aside from the death of the 2 members of Rick’s group, viewers learned the world of The Walking Dead is a bit larger with the additional community of Ezekiel, played by Khary Payton.
But who is King Ezekiel? We’re diving into the world of The Walking Dead comic series to let you know the things about this new character.
First and foremost, Ezekiel is the king of the community known as The Kingdom. This group lives in a high school and has busses and sheet metal protecting their community. Ezekiel has made himself the leader of these lands. He acts like a king, all the time, speaking in a an off-putting dialect that doesn’t fit the current world.
While the Walking Dead is known for its villain with larger-than-life personalities, Ezekiel was one of the first heroes to come along and steal the spotlight. Because of his past community theater work, Ezekiel took on the role of a powerful, yet happy-go-lucky king. At first, he seems a bit mentally unbalanced, compared to the rest of the survivors in the world. However, readers later learn there is a method to his madness.
Before Ezekiel becomes the ruler of his own kingdom, he was a zookeeper. He worked there for years and cared for the animals under his watch. He even returned to his old zoo after the breakout to help out one animal in particular.
The craziest thing about Ezekiel isn’t that he is a king or sometimes speaks in Old English. It’s that he goes everywhere with his pet tiger, Shiva. When the world first started going to hell, Ezekiel returned to his place of work and found Shiva, alone and famished. Since he raised Shiva since she was a cub and nursed her back to health. The word spread that there was a man with a tiger roaming around, which added to the legend of the character.
The most important thing about Ezekiel is that he makes a powerful ally to Rick and the town of Alexandria. The Kingdom has the power and the numbers to take Negan and The Saviors down, but Ezekiel isn’t easily persuaded. In the comics, The Kingdom becomes a key factor in the war against Negan and it seems like that will be a big part of this season’s storyline.