Every ‘The Walking Dead’ Fan Has A New Favorite Character

A week after killing off arguably the show’s most popular non-Daryl character, The Walking Dead had a massive Glenn-shaped hole to fill. Enter: King Ezekiel, the leader of the Kingdom who made quite the first impression in Sunday’s episode, “The Well.” As our own Dustin Rowles wrote, “He’s personable, he’s kind, he’s funny, eccentric and real… [and] exactly what this series needed after last week’s brutal season premiere.” That would be the one where Negan smashed Abraham and Glenn to death with a baseball bat.

The Walking Dead has always been morbid, but the last two episodes, the finale “Last Day on Earth” and near-record-setting premiere “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be,” were too unrelentingly nihilistic for some viewers. That’s why fans are reacting so strongly to the enjoyably quirky King Ezekiel and his CGI tiger sidekick Shiva — IMDb voters have already named “The Well” the best episode of the entire series (“Last Day,” meanwhile, is dead last), and Twitter users are happily pledging allegiance to their new favorite character.

https://twitter.com/ShastenMarie/status/792973003701104641

https://twitter.com/ChaosXLV/status/792964796299685888

https://twitter.com/Vmanhvong/status/792939123866759168

https://twitter.com/DirkHooper/status/792909844999200768

https://twitter.com/TheeRizz/status/792897209897521152

If there’s one lesson the other Walking Dead characters should learn from the outpouring of love for King Ezekiel, it’s: walk around with a jungle cat at all times. Jaguars and panthers and lions chew on baseball bats like toothpicks.