‘The Walking Dead’ season 7 spoilers: Khary Payton on playing Ezekiel

Sure, Negan’s reign of terror is going to be for the most part one of the bigger themes of “The Walking Dead” season 7, but at the same time, we presume that there will be plenty of conversation about Ezekiel. The leader of the Kingdom has a pet tiger named Shiva, an eccentric personality, and a look that is very different than almost everyone else on the show. He’s an exciting, charismatic character; while we’re not a reader of the comic series ourselves, the impression we have received over time is that this is a character many people are excited to see on the show.

Khary Payton is the man responsible for playing the role, and while he’s been forced to be rather hush-hush for most of the year, he’s finally now getting a chance to speak up. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor describes the character with the following:

“He’s in the business of not losing himself to his surroundings. I don’t let things get me down. I brighten the things around me in that it’s a party when you’re going to be around him, and whether it was a party there before it’ll be a party by the time he leaves. I love even his relationship with the zombies themselves. He’s a guy who doesn’t think of them as having a physical disease. It’s more that their joy was robbed from them, and that he’s one of the few people left on earth whose joy hasn’t been robbed, and to him, that’s the difference between the living and the dead. If you’re still human, but you’re letting your joy be taken away from you, you might as well be one of those mindless creatures walking all over. So to him, it’s kind of a weird philosophy of life that he’s developed living in this apocalypse that you don’t let this world turn you into something that you’re not.”

You can also see the first photo of Ezekiel below, and we would not hesitate to say that the guy looks great. Seeing him is going to be great not only from the vantage point of getting to know this character, but also the larger world. Expansion is going to be one of the key themes for season 7, as we start to know more just how large and vast this world truly is.

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