The Walking Dead: Inside Look At The Making Of Ezekiel’s Shiva Tiger

Sunday night’s episode of The Walking Dead took fans to The Kingdom for the first time and introduced them to Ezekiel and his pet tiger Shiva. Fans of the comic rejoiced as they saw the most difficult aspect of Robert Kirkman’s comics to adapt for television become a reality.

However, on a show not exactly known for its special effects, attempting to convince audiences of a new character keeping a tiger as a pet could have been a risk. Greg Nicotero’s visual effects team had to put in extra effort to ensure the tiger would look convincing and they did just that by the time the episode was released.

Ezekiel and Shiva burst onto the scene and became fan favorite characters.

In a new video, embedded above, AMC takes us behind the scenes of making Shiva a reality on The Walking Dead. It was a long process using countless skilled computer graphics editors.

As for how much of Shiva we will see going forward, we shouldn’t expect a long lifespan for the jungle cat. In the comics, Shiva sacrificed herself to save Ezekiel only 10 issues after her introduction.

In fact, Shiva was not the only part of The Walking Dead‘s most recent episode which require extra effort from the special effects team. Carol’s hallucinations early in the episode prompted a bit more work as the team had to substitue healthy humans for zombified versions of themselves. The trick to it: Nicotero’s team hired twins for the parts.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. For complete coverage and insider info all season long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.