Khary Payton joined The Walking Dead as Ezekiel back in season 7. Once a badass king with a pet tiger, Ezekiel got caught up in the war against Negan. He lost his power and his community. Fighting cancer, he found hope within the Commonwealth, which is now crumbling around him.
In the comics, Ezekiel’s story ends much earlier. He’s one of the people Alpha kills, beheads, and places on a spike to mark the borders of Whisperer territory. The writers on the show thought Ezekiel had more to do, so they ignored the comics and killed other characters instead.
With the show fast approaching its conclusion — the series finale airs on November 20 — Payton revealed that there’s not enough time left to give Ezekiel a satisfying ending. “No, I’m not satisfied at all,” he told Insider. “I wish that – there are so many places and situations that I would’ve loved to explore.”
"But that’s one of the things that happens when you have a show that has this many dynamic and interesting characters. 48 minutes or, sometimes, over an hour-long episode just isn’t enough."
One of the main strengths of The Walking Dead is its complex characters, but that can also be one of its biggest weaknesses. There are too many characters to deal with. “These characters are beautifully constructed,” Payton explained. “I think the strength of the show is that these characters are nuanced, interesting, and there’s so many of them that you just can’t get it all in.”
Khary Payton is totally down to return in The Walking Dead spinoffs!
Perhaps Ezekiel will show up in one of the many spinoff shows on the way. There’s a Daryl Dixon show set in France, Dead City (which follows Negan and Maggie), and a Rick and Michonne series. Season 8 of Fear the Walking Dead is coming, too, and that show has already featured several crossovers.
Payton is down to continue Ezekiel’s journey in one of the spinoffs. “There’s a chance,” he said. “AMC+, there’s a place to land there. If something like that happens, I would be excited to explore it. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
Payton is also down to explore Ezekiel’s past. There are a lot of potential stories there, from how he got his tiger to the formation of the Kingdom. “I am very sorry to say goodbye to Ezekiel and I cross my fingers and hope that maybe sometime down the road, we could tell the story of how Ezekiel came to be a king or something,” Payton said. The show has already dedicated an episode to telling Negan’s origin story, after all.
Payton says that he’s “keeping his fingers crossed” for a return. We are too!
The Walking Dead season 11 continues Sunday on AMC. The series finale airs on November 20. After over a decade on our screens, it’s hard to believe that it’s finally ending…until the spinoffs.
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