Here's How The Walking Dead Brings Shiva to Life

When it comes to the season finale of The Walking Dead, there was one scene that almost certainly had every fan cheering wildly. At a pivotal point, Negan is just about to beat Carl to death with Lucille, when King Ezekiel's tiger companion Shiva shows up out of nowhere and mauls a Savior in broad daylight. It only gets more badass from there as she makes her way around Alexandria, dispatching enemies. With such a triumphant moment, we couldn't help but wonder what went into creating the big feline lifesaver. As luck would have it, AMC has shared a few behind-the-scenes glimpses at the magic. Needless to say, it's a little funny.

There's a stuntman in a blue morphsuit who the visual effects team turns into Shiva in postproduction. At least, that's exactly what happened for the finale. A person wore a blue suit and leaped around attacking actors. But what's the point of describing it to you when we could just show you these revelatory pictures?

At this point, you might be wondering how this gentleman got so much air for that initial lunge. After all, Shiva appears to soar into frame like some sort of tiger superhero that has decided to do away with the whole supersuit thing. Well, we have an answer for that too: a springboard. If you look to the right side of the GIF, you can even see the stand-in for Carl kneeling in the grass and the stand-in for Negan pretending to swing a bat.

So, there you have it. It's unclear if we're seeing a man in a morphsuit every single time we see Shiva, mostly because it seemed especially appropriate for this specific situation. It's possible the same effect is created with blue tennis balls and such in the tiger's more docile and stagnant scenes. We'll just go ahead and leave that up to your imagination.