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Why should you run? Could it be possible that you don't know who I am?
„
~ Shere Khan, jokingly but incredulous at Mowgli not knowing why he should run from Shere Khan.noicon
“
Oh, please, don't insult my intelligence. It makes me... irritable.
„
~ Shere Khan interrogating Kaa on Mowgli's whereabouts via threats, despite the snake truthfully telling him that he has no idea where the man-cub is.
Shere Khan (sometimes spelled as Shere-Khan) is the main antagonist of Disney's The Jungle Book franchise.
He is a notoriously powerful Bengal tiger with a burning hatred towards humankind, partially because his main fears are guns and fire. He is the archenemy of Mowgli, Bagheera and Baloo.
In the original 1967 film, he was voiced by the late George Sanders, who also played Mr. Freeze in the 1966 Batman TV series and Addison Dewitt in All About Eve; his singing voice was provided by the late Bill Lee; and his roars were provided by the late Jimmy MacDonald, who also made the vocal effects of Tick-Tock the Crocodile in Peter Pan, Brutus and Nero in The Rescuers and the Bear in The Fox and the Hound.
In TaleSpin and the second film, he was voiced by the late Tony Jay, who also voiced Judge Claude Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Monsieur D'Arque in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Lickboot in Tom & Jerry: The Movie, Galactus in the 1994 Fantastic Four series, Lord Dregg in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, Baron Mordo in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Khartoum in Disney's Aladdin series, Megabyte in ReBoot, and the Lieutenant in Fallout.
Ah, you have spirit for one so small. And such spirit is deserving of a sporting chance. Now, I'm going to close my eyes and count to ten. It makes the chase more interesting... for me.
„
~ Shere Khan starts his game with Mowgli.noicon
Shere Khan is an enormous and powerful Bengal tiger. He is known for his menacing and merciless attitude. Everyone including Bagheera knows that he is powerful, which results in Shere Khan exhibiting a very ambitious and conniving personality. He is very sophisticated and suave, and shown to be incredibly gentlemanly and polite when he wants to be, but will turn feral and bloodthirsty when he gets angered. Animals everywhere in the jungle fear Shere Khan and he is often known as the "Lord of the Jungle", and he takes great sadistic pleasure at this as he enjoys instilling fear into the animals of the jungle. The vultures addressed him as "Your Highness". He puts on a snooty, yet sociable face, even when he's about to murder his opponent. He also shows a surprisingly yet twisted sense of honour such as when interrupting Kaa's attempt to eat Mowgli earlier on, Shere Khan was convinced that the snake was hiding someone in his coils and easily saw through his attempts to deceive him but ultimately pushed his authority as far as he was willing to. Despite his hatred towards humankind, Shere Khan was surprised and impressed by the fact that the man-cub stood up to him. Although he recognized that Mowgli was simply hiding his fear under a tough exterior, Shere Khan felt compelled to give the boy a chance to flee. However, given his prideful and boastful traits, Shere Khan proved to be too overconfident in his brute strength to the extent of arrogance and narcissism in the end.
His only known fears are Man's guns and fire, which led to Shere Khan's vow to murder any human that entered his jungle which he has been known to do successfully, with the exception of Mowgli.
There is no creature Shere Khan holds a deeper burning hatred and resentment for than mankind. His hatred stems from fear of what man is capable of, being the masters of fire and possessing deadly firearms, and the fact that he has been a primary target for trophy hunters all his life, using narcissistic entitlement as justification for such acts. Khan's fear and hatred of mankind is so deep that he perceives every human being as a threat to the jungle, not just hunters. As such he sees Mowgli as no different from all the humans that have targeted him, despite Mowgli being not only a harmless child, but empathetic to all animals due to having been raised in the wild, meaning he has no remorse for killing an innocent child. According to Bagheera, any attempt to explain to Shere Khan that Mowgli would never harm an animal is futile as the tiger cannot be reasoned with and will never take the risk of letting Mowgli reach his full human potential.
When interrogating Kaa, he does not toy with him like he did in the first film. Instead, he stoically threatens him and refuses to leave him be until the snake reveals all he knows, suggesting that the tiger no longer cares for the old code of honor that once stopped him from engaging in unnecessary unpleasantness and only cares about getting results now. Despite that, in the climax of the film when Shanti is at the tiger's mercy, he gives Mowgli his word that the girl will be spared if he gives himself up. Whether or not he would have honored his word is up to debate.
Biography[]
Jungle Cubs[]
Shere Khan appears as a cub in the animated series Jungle Cubs. In this series, it shows that Shere Khan was originally friends with Baloo, Bagheera, Louie, Hathi and Kaa. He was also more of an arrogant bully in the series rather than a risky predator, as he typically tags along with Baloo and their friends on many adventures. Due to his egotistical and cocky demeanour, he would often try to prove that he is braver than his friends and often tries to assert his dominance. Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was very fond of his friends and was protective of them when they were in danger. In a few episodes, he even saved their lives a few times. In one episode, "Nice Tiger", he was shown to be quite affectionate and loving towards his grandmother. However, it was revealed in the same episode that Khan acted tough as he thought the other animals wouldn't respect him if he showed his soft side.
In the DVD cutscenes of Jungle Cubs: Born to be Wild, an adult Baloo, says that, while Khan would "first eat and then ask questions", he doesn't do it out of sheer malice. This implies that, like any other predator, Khan's ways of hunting are merely to ensure his survival.
The Jungle Book[]
“
Then, one night, the wolf pack elders... met at the council rock. Because Shere Khan, the tiger, had returned to their part of the jungle. This meeting was to change the mancub's entire future.
„
~ Bagheera first mention of Shere Khan.noicon
Despite having been referred to and spoken of several times, Shere Khan is first seen stalking a deer at two thirds of the film, but before he can ambush it, he is suddenly interrupted by the Jungle Patrol marching and scaring Khan's prey away, and Shere Khan is disappointed and refers to Colonel Hathi as "ridiculous." After Bagheera interrupts them on their cross-country march, Shere Khan eavesdrops in on their conversation, interested and delighted to learn about Mowgli. After they leave, he begins searching for Mowgli.
While searching for Mowgli, he hears Kaa singing and becomes suspicious. He uses Kaa's tail as a doorbell, and gets him to come down. He politely questions Kaa about Mowgli and Kaa acts bizarrely while he was answering his questions. Kaa's suspicious behavior prompts Shere Khan to search his coils for Mowgli, but he is unable find him. He reminds Kaa if he sees him, to let him know.
Later, he overhears singing and investigates what is going on. He finds Mowgli singing and dancing with the vultures. He wraps their song for them, and applauded them for their "extraordinary performance." The vultures tell Mowgli to run, but he doesn't understand why. Shere Khan asks him if it's possible that he doesn't know who he is, and Mowgli tells him he knows his identity. He tries intimidating Mowgli, and after being impressed by his courage, he gives him ten seconds to run away. Instead, Mowgli fetches a stick to fight him off, causing Shere Khan to become angry. He lunges at Mowgli, only to be stopped by Baloo grabbing his tail. While Shere Khan is chasing Mowgli, the vultures help by grabbing Mowgli and getting him to safety. Shere Khan furiously attacks Baloo, almost killing him.
A thunder and lightning storm starts, and lightning strikes a tree, causing a fire, and the vultures tell Mowgli that fire is the only thing Shere Khan is afraid of. Mowgli gets a burning stick, and ties it around Shere Khan's tail, while the vultures tease and attack him. The vultures then tell Shere Khan to look behind him. Fearfully, he roars in fear as he first tries to put the fire out, and he gets burned several times on his behind while running away.
With Shere Khan defeated, Bagheera and Baloo were able to escort Mowgli to the Man Village for his own safety.
The Jungle Book 2[]
“
Mowgli.
„
~ Shere Khan after stepping on and destroying the coconut that looked like Mowgli.
Shere Khan returns in the 2003 sequel, where he is determined to slaughter Mowgli in revenge for humiliating him. He is also far more sinister in this movie than in the original and has a larger role. He makes his way to the man village where Mowgli currently lives, sneaking silently past the sleeping villagers. He hears one of Mowgli's friends, a girl named Shanti, calling out his name and finds Mowgli's house. Then, he waits impatiently for the Man-Cub to show himself.
However, unbeknownst to Shere Khan, Baloo had arrived to the village before him to visit Mowgli. Shanti then yells about a wild animal in the village after spotting Baloo taking Mowgli back to the jungle, which inadvertently exposes Shere Khan's presence to the villagers, who angrily chase him off with torches and pitchforks back into the jungle. Despite the setback, Shere Khan is delighted that Mowgli is returning to the jungle. He interrogates Kaa on Mowgli's whereabouts as he believes that the latter knows where Mowgli is (after hearing him say "Man-Cub"). Although Kaa truthfully has no idea where Mowgli is and is actually referring to Mowgli's adoptive younger brother Ranjan (who foiled Kaa's attempt to devour Shanti), Shere Khan refuses to believe him and continues to intimidate the snake, which finally forces Kaa to fearfully lie that Mowgli is at the swamp, allowing him to depart.
When Shere Khan arrives at the swamp with Mowgli nowhere to be found, he splashes the water in fury after realizing that Kaa lied to him. Shere Khan gets aggravated by Lucky, the newest member of the vulture gang. However, he gets alerted of Mowgli's actual location from the unprepared Lucky, who he seemingly murdered as revenge for his utter aggravation. With that in mind, Khan encounters Mowgli, Shanti, and Ranjan. He chases down the children to a place of ruins with a moat of lava. Baloo was able to rescue Ranjan and have Bagheera watch over him while he goes off to the ruins to rescue both Mowgli and Shanti.
Baloo, Mowgli, and Shanti use giant gongs inside the ruin to distract Shere Khan. However, the reverberations of the gongs' sounds caused one of them to fall, exposing Shanti's presence to Shere Khan, who threatens to kill her unless Mowgli reveals himself. After Mowgli reveals himself, Baloo briefly knocks down Shere Khan in order to allow Mowgli and Shanti to run away. After recuperating, Shere Khan knocks out Baloo and catches up to the kids as they climb on a large statue head hanging over a lava pit. However, the statue's head starts to break (due to Shere Khan's weight), and Baloo saves Mowgli and Shanti while Shere Khan falls on a rock slab inside the lava pit, where he gets trapped by the statue's head. Lucky (who somehow survived Shere Khan's attack but was left bruised) came back and aggravated him even more as retaliation for attacking him, much to Khan's chagrin.
It is unknown if either Shere Khan ever figured out a way to escape the lava pit, as it was high above him while trapped in the statue head there was also no rock slab to escape the lava pit and there was no food so he may have starved to death in the lava pit inside the statue's head. However, it seems Shere Khan was imprisoned in the statue as his punishment.
The version of Shere Khan from TaleSpin makes a cameos on a mugshot in Darkwing Duck and Bonkers.
Shere Khan appears as a regular guest and antagonist in House of Mouse. Strangely enough, he (for some reason) does not appear in the show's tie-in film Mickey's House of Villains, not even as a cameo, and is therefore one of the only three Disney villains featured in that show who does not appear in that film at all, with other two being Commander Lyle Rourke and Scar because they are absent, however it is possible that Shere Khan was one of the villains who was apart of the takeover of the House of Mouse.
Video Games[]
Shere Khan appears as a boss in the Donald Duck game QuackShot.
Shere Khan appears as the main antagonist of the Virgin Studios video game adaptations of The Jungle Book and The Jungle Book 2.
Shere Khan appears as the main antagonist of The Jungle Book Groove Party, singing the original song "Run".
Shere Khan appears as a costume in Disney Universe.
A costume appears for Shere Khan within the 2020 multiplayer party game Fall Guys, existing as one of the game's four The Jungle Book-themed costumes (alongside Mowgli, Baloo, and King Louie). It was released in September 2021.
Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book[]
Shere Khan is presented as a more sympathetic character in the 1994 film, serving as an anti-hero. He acts as the protector of the jungle, enforcing the jungle law and protecting animals, and that he despises humankind for their desire to kill for sport instead for food or survival. In the beginning of the film, he is outraged to hear that three humans (Buldeo, Sergeant Claibourne, and an unnamed British sentry) have killed several animals for fun, so he hunts them down. Though Khan succeeded in killing Claibourne and the sentry, he failed to track Buldeo as the latter was saved by a guide named Nathoo, who ends up being killed by Khan in self-defense. This event is what caused Nathoo's son Mowgli and his pet wolf Grey Brother to be separated from civilization and spend several years in the jungle.
Shere Khan later returns when Mowgli, along with his childhood friend Katherine 'Kitty' Brydon and her father Colonel Geoffrey Brydon, are held hostage by William Boone and his men (including Buldeo) to search for the lost jungle city full of treasure. Being on the lookout, Shere Khan manages to take down and maul John Wilkins to death as he shot Baloo for fun. After Boone ends up being killed by Kaa, Shere Khan confronts Mowgli and Kitty at the jungle city, maintaining his distrust of humans. However, Mowgli bravely stand his ground by roaring at Shere Khan, who finally acknowledges Mowgli as a creature of the jungle; even giving a few chuffs and moans as a mere apology for killing Nathoo. With a newfound respect for Mowgli, Shere Khan allows him and Kitty to leave the jungle peacefully; it was later implied by Colonel Brydon that Khan deliberately stepped down to allow Mowgli to become the new protector of the jungle.
(Baloo: Come on, Khan. Why do you want to hurt the kid.) Why not? (Baloo: Now look. We helped you out of some jams when we were kids. You own us.) Oh, Baloo. The past is the past.
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~ Adult Shere Khan showing that his former childhood friendship with Baloo, Bagheera and the others no longer means anything to him.
“
What beastly luck. Confound that ridiculous Colonel Hathi.
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~ Shere Khan annoyed that Colonel Hathi and his herd scared a deer away that he intended to devour.
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How interesting.
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~ Shere Khan after hearing Bagheera say Man-Cub.
“
How delightful.
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~ Shere Khan delighted to hear that Mowgli ran away.
“
Element of surprise? Oh, I say. And now for my rendezvous with the little lost Man-Cub.
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~ Shere Khan about to begin his own hunt for Mowgli.
“
It's me, Shere Khan. I'd like a word with you if you don't mind.
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~ Shere Khan interrogating Kaa.
“
Yes, isn't it? I just dropped by. Now, forgive me if I've interrupted anything. (Kaa: Oh, no. No. Nothing at all.) I thought perhaps you were entertaining someone up there in your coils. (Kaa: Coils? Someone? Oh, no. I was just curling up for my siesta.) But you were singing to someone. Who is it, Kaa?
„
~ Shere Khan intimidating Kaa.
“
I can't be bothered with that, I-I have no time for that sort of nonsense.
„
~ Shere Khan not falling for Kaa's hypnosis.
“
Well, if you do just happen to see the man cub you will inform me first, understand? (Kaa: I get the point. Cross my heart, hope to die.) Good show. And now I must continue my search for the helpless little lad.
„
~ Shere Khan questioning Kaa about Mowgli.
“
🎶That's what friends... are... for...!🎶 Bravo, bravo. An extraordinary performance. And thank you for detaining my victim.
„
~ Shere Khan having finally managed to find Mowgli.
“
Shere Khan: Why should you run? Could it be possible that you don't know who I am? Mowgli: I know you, all right. You're Shere Khan. Shere Khan: Precisely. Then you should also know that everyone runs from Shere Khan. Mowgli: You don't scare me. I won't run from anyone. Shere Khan: Ah. You have spirit for one so small. And such spirit is deserving of a sporting chance. Now, I'm going to close my eyes and count to ten. It makes the chase more interesting... for me. One, two... three... four... You're trying my patience. Five, six, seven, eight, nine, TEN!
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~ Shere Khan being impressed by Mowgli's courage and giving him a 10-second head start to run away.
~ Shere Khan's breakdown threatening and viciously attacking Baloo.
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Stay out of this, you mangy fools!
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~ Shere Khan's last words in the first film before he runs off in panic after Mowgli ties a burning branch to his tail.
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I know where he isn't. Now tell me, where. He. Is!
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~ Shere Khan intimidating Kaa during the interrogation, completely ignoring the latter's truthful pleas that he has no idea where Mowgli is.
“
Isn't it ironic that is your name is Lucky?
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~ Shere Khan before he viciously attacks Lucky for repeatedly mocking him.
“
You seem surprised to see me, man cub. I can't imagine why. I wasn't going to let you get away with what you did to me. You see, you humiliated me, man cub. Surely you realize I simply can't let you live.
„
~ Shere Khan confronting Mowgli a second time.
“
No matter how fast you run, no matter where you hide, I will catch you.
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~ Shere Khan threatening Mowgli.
“
Come out, come out, wherever you are...
„
~ Shere Khan hunting Mowgli.
“
Well, isn't this a delightful turn of events? So what's it going to be, man cub? You? Or your adorable little girlfriend? I'm waiting. One... two...
~ Shere Khan's last words after he got trapped in a giant tiger head statue in the lava pit and being insulted by Lucky again.
Disney Parks[]
Shere Khan is the main antagonist of Journey into the Jungle Book at Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
He appears in the Once Upon a Dream parade at Disneyland Paris.
At Hong Kong Disneyland, he appears in Flights of Fantasy, Villains Night Out!, and The Nightmare Experiment.
Vocals[]
Trivia[]
Shere Khan is ranked #12 in the Top 30 Disney Villains.
Richard Waugh claimed that he got the inspiration for his voice for Albert Wesker from George Sanders' Shere Khan.
Shere Khan marks the sole animated role for George Sanders before his death on April 25, 1972.
Shere Khan is a member of Disney's Sinister Cats, a sub-franchise of the mainline Disney Villains franchise.
Shere Khan's hatred toward men because of their weapons is not without reasons considering that tigers have become one of the world's most endangered species because of men hunting and destruction of their habitats. Even Bagheera acknowledged that Shere Khan's hatred of humans stems from a traumatic experience (what the experience was is unknown) and the fact that for a long time he has been a primary target for hunters.
Shere Khan's distinctive chin was actually modeled after George Sanders' actual chin.
In a proposed third film, Shere Khan escaped from the statue at the beginning, and was kidnapped alongside Baloo and forced into a circus environment. Unlike the first or second Jungle Book, Shere Khan was going to be redeemed as Mowgli and the other animals attempt to rescue him and Baloo. However, production for the third film was cancelled because the second film was met with negative reviews and poor sales (despite being a box office success).
Shere Khan was originally going to appear in a 2017 DuckTales episode that would have explored his fate alongside those of Rebecca Cunningham, Baloo, and the original Don Karnage. However, plans were scrapped because the series was cancelled.
Villains
