The Walking Dead: Khary Payton, Ezekiel and the business of hope

Khary Payton and King Ezekiel bring new blood and new hope to season 7 of the Walking Dead with the community of The Kingdom and the tiger Shiva.

Comic readers have been waiting for the joyful King Ezekiel to enter the television version of The Walking Dead for quite some time. With the release of the trailer for Season 7 at Comic-Con, it has been confirmed that the wait won’t be much longer.

Khary Payton spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the role now that he can come out of hiding. As a non-comic reader, I can join the excitement now, having heard Payton’s view about the King. He’s just yin that the yang of Negan and the desperation of season 7 needs!

This was Payton’s first interview and apparently, he’s adjusting to the world of The Walking Dead:

"Yeah, man. I’m honestly a little freaked out just talking to you. I’ve been diving in the backs of vans and having blankets thrown over my head so that nobody catches a glimpse of me and getting in and out of Georgia. I’ve got a lot of family in Georgia and I didn’t even tell them that I was there, so to have an interview with a reporter is a little unnerving."

He seems to understand the fans and the devotion to the show:

"I really adore the connection that people have with the show. I’m not a big zombie apocalypse guy, but I think the acting and the writing of the show is just exceptional."

His audition process was similar to the many we’ve heard, except because of the lion in the fake sides, he was able to figure out who he was auditioning for in the show, when other actors have had no idea what part they were getting.

"It was pretty easy to figure it out. I mean, I knew that I was auditioning for The Walking Dead, and they renamed it in the sides. They changed the name and changed the tiger to a lion, but honestly, it doesn’t take a whole lot of detective work to figure it out."

Payton talks about the business of acting and how you have to deal with rejection and still be able to keep your hope and fight the negativity that comes your way and how that connects to the character of King Ezekiel.

"I feel like I had a connection with this character in a weird way. I always say that when you’re in this acting business, you get a lot of rejection. You get a lot of people telling you no and you’ve got to get up, dust yourself off, and try again, and I feel like in a way Ezekiel fits that same mold where he’s in the hope business. I always say I’m in the hope business. You’ve got to stay hopeful. You’ve got to get up off your behind and try again no matter how many times they tell you it’s not going to work out. Your opinion’s got to overshadow whatever negativity might come your way. In a zombie apocalypse one can find themselves getting down about their situation, but Ezekiel’s not one of those people. He fights with all he’s got to make sure he stays positive and stays joyful. That’s what I love about him."

Ezekiel is quite a larger than life character like many of those in Robert Kirkman’s world of The Walking Dead. Payton talked about how that fits in this crazy world:

"Yeah, you first come upon him and you think he’s a little bit out there, and he is a little bit out there. But the truth is that everything about this world is a little bit out there, and if you want to survive in it and if you want to survive on your own terms, you need to preach your philosophy and preach it loudly so that it doesn’t get drowned out by all the crazy."

Reading about Payton’s experiences and his take on King Ezekiel have me truly excited for his introduction. I love his understanding of the character and what he wants to bring to him. I had no idea before what the crazy King was all about. The idea of joy and hope in this dark world have me hopeful for some joy and hope in our show.

Next: More thoughts about The Kingdom and Ezekiel from the EW interview

Hope was one of the things on my wish list for the trailer. I hoped for hope. That our group and our people weren’t permanently broken with all of the love and fight stripped from them. Ezekiel and his KIngdom of knights have me very intrigued.

Look for several more articles from me in the very near future about King Ezekiel, Shiva and more of the quotes from Khary Payton. My mind is spinning with excitement from reading this interview.