SPOILER ALERT: Read on only if you have watched Sundays episode ofThe Walking Dead, The Well.
We spoke to executive producer/director Greg Nicotero to get the behind-the-scenes scoop on the latest episode.
How did they bring Shiva the tiger to the screen?
Credit: AMC
What trick did Nicotero pull to make the Kingdom look different from every other community weve seen before?
And is there a love connection brewing between Ezekiel and Carol?
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Lets start right with the cold open.
Whats that all about?
I mean, at the end of last year she was like, Just kill me.
If I died right now, its okay.
So, sort of visualizing the world of the living and the world of the dead.
A lot of that task fell to you.
Tell us how the sausage was made here, sir.
Weve done a lot of pretty astounding animatronic animal effects.
One of the first big projects that my company ever did wasDances With Wolvesback in 1990.
So part of the pedigree of a K&B has been our realistic animal replicas.
For us, its been a lovely and very exciting marriage of these two techniques.
If they can put a tiger in a boat, I guess they can do pretty much anything.
What about the Kingdom itself?
With the Kingdom, there is no end to it.
I wanted it to feel so different than the dead world outside.
Even Woodbury back in the day still didnt have it right.
I just embraced the contradiction.Its fascinating the way this guy made himself into who he is in this world.
He even says, Listen, I do this for the people.
They need something to believe in.
Yeah, its a little ridiculous, but, you know what?
If hes got a tiger, hes gotta be a badass.
They do it for him and he does it for everybody else.
It gets to the heart of the matter that really, whatever you were before, it doesnt matter.
The apocalypse put a complete reset on everything.
Once the apocalypse happened, he became King Ezekiel.
Clearly, he wasnt walking around as a king before the apocalypse.
Listen, Glenn was a pizza delivery boy before the apocalypse.
Too soon, Greg.
I think he admires her and respects her and I think she admires and respects him as well.
Because he gets her and she understands what hes trying to do.
She thinks its a little ridiculous what hes doing, but theres respect.
You have to just understand that.
Hes like, Well, you know what, Ill make a deal with you.
And thats why she ends up at the cottage.
I need to save you.
Hes on a mission, basically, to save her and shes like, Its not your job.
You dont need to save me.
Im capable of saving myself if thats what I decide to do.
So, you gotta leave me be.
He finally decides to stop.
So what are we to make of Ezekiel showing up at Carols door at the end?
She hears the roar of the tiger at the door and opens it and hes got the pomegranates there.
Give us a little tease of what weve got coming up next?
