The Walking Dead: Khary Payton Describes Ezekiel Meeting Negan

The Walking Dead saw a major change of pace with the second episode of its seventh season. The show introduced Khary Payton’s portrayal of Ezekiel to the world, taking audiences to a much brighter community than ever before.

However, that community is under the same oppression Alexandria is these days. The Kingdom answers to Negan and the Saviors. With little more info given in the Kingdom’s introductory hour, one has to wonder if Negan put on a show for Ezekiel the same way he did with Rick and company.

ComicBook.com got to the bottom of it in an exclusive interview with Payton.

“We really haven’t discussed that,” Payton said.

He does, however, admit Negan and Ezekiel are both quite the showmen.

“I think they’ve given each other a run for their money,” Payton said. “They’re very different shows, but they’re both on Broadway, selling to sold out crowds.”

Somewhere along the way, Ezekiel and Negan must have crossed paths. The man who bashes skulls to make his point would have a hard time committing such an act in front of a tiger, which prompts Payton to have his own theory.

“I have my own theories,” Payton said. “I feel like Negan brought a bat, I brought a tiger, and we came to an understanding.”

“I don’t know if I necessarily lost people to Negan,” Payton said. “The whole point of the Kingdom, in this alternate reality that Ezekiel has built up, is to keep his enemies off kilter. To have them feel like, ‘You know what, I’m not exactly sure what to make of this guy.’ Even the Saviors that we come in contact with in the episode, you could tell that they were like, ‘You know what, let’s try and keep this as civil as possible, even though we’ve got this idiot one of us that’s trying to make trouble.’ You can see that they were like, ‘You know what, this guy treats us good. He provides. He doesn’t give us any problems, and we’re not quite sure what to make of him, so let’s not make this too crazy. Let’s try and keep this civil,’ rather than them pulling out the guns and the bats immediately.”

As for whether or not we will see Shiva tear Negan to shreds as many fans are currently hoping for, Payton says it is Ezekiel who wants to do the honor, himself.

As for the fan reactions to his portrayal of Ezekiel, Payton has been pleasantly surprised.

“It’s been pretty good,” Payton said. “I don’t know what exactly I was expecting. If I was going to get some backlash for whatever reason, but I don’t feel any backlash. I think everybody’s pretty happy with it, so I’m feeling no pain today.”

“Maybe a little bleary eyed from Frank buying me drinks, but other than that, everybody seems happy with Ezekiel and that means I’m over the moon because he’s such a special character and I felt a responsibility to the comic books, to Kirkman, to everybody on the show, but I feel a responsibility to the other guys who auditioned for Ezekiel,” Payton said. “It’s like, I want them to watch and be like, ‘Okay, you know what? That guy did a good job. I feel good about this,’ because he’s such a great character and he doesn’t come along very often. I want everybody to be happy about it.”

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.