| NOTE: The page is only for the version from the 2016 film and its novelization. |
| “ | Shere Khan: Does my face not remind you of what a grown man can do? Shift your hunting grounds for a few years and everyone forgets how the law works. Well, let me remind you; a man-cub becomes man, and man... is... FORBIDDEN! Raksha: What do you know about law? Akela: Raksha. Raksha: Hunting for pleasure. Killing for power. You've never known law. The cub is mine! Mine to me, so go back to where you came from, you burnt beast! |
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| ~ Shere Khan shows his scars and expresses his hatred for mankind, before Raksha stands up to him by revealing the true personality of the evil tiger. |
Shere Khan is the main antagonist of the 2016 Disney live-action film The Jungle Book, a remake of the 1967 animated classic.
He is a notorious, fearsome, and scarred Bengal tiger who serves as the tyrannical king of the jungle and is obsessed with killing the man-cub Mowgli, due to him having a vendetta against mankind after getting his face burned which blinded his left eye and gave him facial scars. He also serves as the most feared animal of the jungle, as well as the one responsible for Mowgli being adopted and raised by Bagheera and the wolf pack in the first place.
He was portrayed by Idris Elba via motion capture, who also played Colin Evans in No Good Deed, The Commandant in Beats of No Nation, and Brixton Lore in Hobbs & Shaw.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- Unlike his original counterpart, he is not played for laughs at all and is taken completely seriously.
- In the past, he brutally killed Mowgli's biological father, causing him to be adopted by the wolves.
- Is implied to have murdered others before the events of the film, given vultures follow him wherever he goes and Raksha calling him out for having hunted for pleasure and killed for power as a hobby in the past.
- He threatened the wolf pack with violence for harboring Mowgli as humans are barred from living in the jungle, even though it was his own fault they raised him.
- He ambushed Mowgli and Bagheera en route to the Man-Village with the full intention of killing them, only failing due to the intervention of a buffalo stampede.
- He killed Akela after learning that Mowgli had left the jungle and was on his way to the Man-Village, rejecting the former's offer of peace.
- He told the wolf pups a story about how the "cuckoo bird" cares for its young (by sneaking its eggs into the nests of simpler birds) and directed said story at Raksha, mocking her for raising Mowgli. He then admitted he didn't want Mowgli to leave, and that he wanted him dead. He also threatened to kill one of her cubs.
- In the novelization, The Strength of The Wolf is the Pack, he ate a jackal who gave him useful info on Mowgli's whereabouts in exchange for scraps.
- When Mowgli confronted him with a burning torch stolen from the Man-Village and accidently started a fire, he tried to get the jungle inhabitants to turn against the former by convincing them he was dangerous and their enemy even though it was an honest accident due to a stray ember falling off the torch and spreading, and this only happened in the first place because Mowgli heard of Akela's death and was determined to stand up to him.
- He cornered Mowgli on a dead fig tree and mocked him for thinking that he would let him grow old, just before attacking him for the final time, only failing to kill him due to the trap the former had set up.
- In the novelization, he rejected Mowgli's offer for peace to kill him instead.
- While he claims to be an extremist by forbidding man from entering the jungle, it is likely it is for his own sake, given the fact that when everyone starts protecting Mowgli, he starts attacking them, proving he isn't really well-intentioned and is merely consumed by his own hatred of them.
- Even Raksha calls him out on this saying that he doesn't know law and that he kills for pleasure.
- What's worse is that when he hears that the wolves released Mowgli and let him out of the jungle instead of turning him over to him, he kills Akela for disobeying him and threatens the other wolves, further proving that he's not an extremist.
- While he seems to let the wolves protect Mowgli, this was likely pragmatic since he expects to kill the wolves with his line "ask yourselves how many lives is a man-cub worth", implying he is aware that even the full pack wouldn't be enough to stand up to him.
- Not to mention, he breaks this promise when the wolves let Mowgli go by killing Akela, as mentioned earlier, showing he's not honorable either.
Trivia[]
- This is the only version of Shere Khan to be Pure Evil, as his original counterpart cannot qualify due to his status of an extremist, his actions being too bog-standard, and having comedic moments.
External Links[]
- Shere Khan on the Villains Wiki
- Shere Khan on the Disney Wiki
