Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

The Walking Dead season 7: Negan and King Ezekiel are one and the same, says Lennie James

The British actor believes the two leaders have more in common than you first think

Jacob Stolworthy
Monday 31 October 2016 13:00 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The Walking Dead season 7 continued tonight (30 October) introducing a whole new faction and selection of characters.

In an episode that was the polar opposite to last week's traumatic opener - which saw the death of two main characters - we met King Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and his pet tiger, Shiva.

Ezekiel, a popular character from Robert Kirkman's comic book series of the same name, is introduced as an ally of Morgan (Lennie James) and Carol's (Melissa McBride), waltzing around his community using old-fashioned language.

Despite this, Morgan actor James believes there isn't too much separating him from baseball bat-wielding maniac Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) who murdered characters Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) in the season 7 premiere.

"Negan puts on a show - Ezekiel's just putting on a different kind of show. All the leaders are playing a role, it's just Ezekiel's is being a King - and I think if you have a pet tiger, you can be whatever you like."

We spoke with Lennie James earlier this month where he revealed to us he was "green-eyed with envy" not to be involved in the much-discussed gruesome death scene from last week's premiere episode.

The Walking Dead season 7 continues int he UK at 9pm every Monday on FOX.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in