Shere Khan is the main antagonist of Disney's 1967 animated feature film The Jungle Book. A powerful Bengal tiger, Shere Khan is considered suave and charming, yet is deeply feared as the most ferocious predator in the jungle and is Mowgli's arch enemy. His reputation was such that he needed only to show himself to intimidate his victims. Khan is equally notorious for his strong hatred towards man, due to his fear of guns and fire. As such, he has vowed to kill any human that steps foot in the jungle.

Although not considered canon to The Jungle Book and its sequel, Jungle Cubs provides a backstory to the tiger. As a cub, Shere Khan was best friends with Baloo, Bagheera, Louie, Hathi, and Kaa. However, he was egotistical and cocky which sometimes led to situations where his friends had to bail him out. Nonetheless, he was fond of his friends and was often protective of them when there was danger. In many episodes he even saved their lives. He was also quite affectionate and loving toward his old grandmother. However, as a predator, Khan acted tough as he thought the other animals wouldn't respect him if he showed his soft side. He and his friends went on many adventures together but, at some undetermined point in time, Shere Khan became vicious and belligerent, feared by all the inhabitants of the jungle. He lost the esteem of his friends, and they regarded him with distrust from that moment forward.

Despite this, in the DVD scenes of Jungle Cubs: Born to be Wild, Baloo, now an adult, says that, while Khan would "first eat and then ask questions", he doesn't do it out of malice. This implies that, like any other predator, Khan's ways of hunting are merely to survive.

Shere Khan, as a tiger, is the physical embodiment of power and composes himself with grace. Carrying himself with a dignified manner and possessing a strong sense of regal pride and elegance, the ruthless tiger is viewed as the uncorroborated lord of the Seoni jungle. He is well aware of this reputation, and asserts it with sadistic pleasure to the best advantage. Most, if not all, residents of the jungle fear Shere Khan, and for reasons apparent: he is physically imposing and arguably the strongest predator in the jungle; his charm and expressions bely an unpredictable and ferocious nature with a hair-trigger temper; and his sharp teeth and claws are unmatched in battle. He speaks rather politely, even to potential victims, with a soft tone, though he interjects with subtly condescending comments. He also seems fond of taunting and emotionally taunting his prey until he's ready to make the killing strike.

Surprisingly, Shere Khan does have his own, albeit twisted, sense of honor. When interrupting Kaa's attempt to eat Mowgli, 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. This shows that Shere Khan generally avoids unnecessary unpleasantness with other apex predators, as it would be inappropriate for his self-proclaimed lordship over the jungle. Making Shere Khan a somewhat complex character. Moreover, despite his hatred for Mowgli, 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.

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.^[1] 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. This showcases Shere Khan's indomitable will, a trait that has also made him the only one in the jungle who is completely immune to Kaa's hypnotic power.

As mentioned before, Shere Khan's experience with hunters have instilled in him an extreme case of pyrophobia. His fear of fire is the most dominant; a crippling phobia capable of driving the tiger to immediate panic. As such, Shere Khan has vowed to kill any human that steps foot within the jungle. In The Jungle Book 2, when he invades the village in search of Mowgli, the villagers tried to contain him with torches, but despite the torches having no effect on him, they allowed Shere Khan to leave the village, confirming that he still has pyrophobia, but showing that he has managed to control his fear of fire somewhat.

After Mowgli defeated Shere Khan, word of the tiger's battle with the man-cub began to spread throughout the jungle and its inhabitants subsequently lost all their respect for their self-proclaimed lord. No one took him seriously anymore and everyone made a mockery of him. This shattered Shere Khan's pride, making him abandon his regal mannerisms and becoming bitter, stoic, and brooding.

At the start of The Jungle Book 2, Shere Khan has endured two years of being the jungle's laughing stock and as a result has become even more obsessed with killing Mowgli, but was reluctant to go after the boy ever since he left the jungle. However, after receiving one more mockery from Lucky the vulture, Shere Khan's rage became so great that he started to ignore his sense of self-preservation and was willing risk his life to take Mowgli's despite the boy now being protected by the villagers. Shere Khan also no longer displays his sadistic sense of humor, except on a few occasions when he mistreats Lucky, almost killing him or when he meets Mowgli and confronts him again.

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.

Shere Khan makes his first physical appearance two-thirds of the way through the film, seen stalking a deer as prey. His hunt is ruined when Colonel Hathi comes marching by with his herd, scaring the deer away, much to Shere Khan's annoyance. When Bagheera halts the herd, Shere Khan eavesdrops on their conversation and is delighted to hear about Mowgli the man-cub who had recently run away from Bagheera with the hopes of staying in the jungle. Bagheera implores Hathi to help find the boy who is alone and devoid of protection. Hathi begrudgingly agrees and, once the herd and Bagheera go their separate ways, Khan begins his own hunt for Mowgli.

After searching for some time, he hears Kaa singing out of sight in a tree. Suspicious, he yanks Kaa's tail like a doorbell and invites the snake to speak. Khan questions whether Kaa has any company and asks him about the lost man-cub, encouraged by the snake's shifty behavior and his singing. Kaa attempted to hypnotize Khan, to no avail, who said he had "no time for that sort of nonsense". Seemingly satisfied after searching some of Kaa's coils, Khan ordered him to act as an informant should he come across the man-cub. Kaa agreed, and Khan took his leave, unaware that Mowgli was sleeping in Kaa's long coils in the tree - though the man-cub soon escaped.

Shere Khan's travels eventually lead to the wastelands where he overhears a quartet of vultures singing. He investigates and finds Mowgli dancing with the birds, even going so far as to finishing the last lines of the song with an imposing basso profundo voice. He applauds the performance and thanks the vultures for "detaining [his] victim" before frightening them away with minimal effort. However, Mowgli is unperturbed and refuses to show fear or run. Impressed by the boy's spirit, Shere Khan (albeit for his own amusement) decides to give him a 10-second head start to run away. As Khan counts to ten, Mowgli instead rushes to find a stick to defend himself with. Irritated by this show of courage, Khan speeds up the countdown before launching at Mowgli but is held back by Baloo who grabs his tail. As Shere Khan runs in circles, struggling to break free of Baloo's grip, the vultures carry Mowgli to safety until they are startled by a lightning flash that ignites a nearby dead tree.

Knowing fire is the one thing Khan fears, the vultures encourage Mowgli to grab a burning branch. Shere Khan furiously bites and hits Baloo until the bear falls unconscious, only to be surrounded by the nagging vultures. While he's distracted, Mowgli ties Khan's tail to the burning branch. Terrified and hysterical, Khan frantically tries to put the fire out, to no avail. He runs away, humiliated, scared, and burned.

Shere Khan returned once again as the main antagonist in the second film. Unlike in the first, he appears much earlier, and he turns far eviler and more antagonistic than before, much less calm and controlled than in the previous film. He is first seen smashing a makeshift version of Mowgli's head after Baloo left the area with Bagheera in pursuit. He seeks revenge on Mowgli for humiliating him at the climax of the original film and wishes for nothing more than his death. Khan travels to the Man-Village where Mowgli dwells.

He had no luck until he heard Shanti, one of Mowgli's friends, calling him. He then found Mowgli's house and was delighted that he would now have his chance for revenge. He became impatient when Mowgli didn't appear. All at once, Mowgli appeared in the air above the house. After Shanti started screaming about a wild animal, Khan noticed it was Baloo with Mowgli and was surprised. After the villagers responded to Shanti's calls, they saw Shere Khan instead of Baloo and chased him out of the village. Khan was attacked by the villagers with torches, but they had no power over him. He escaped in rage but overjoyed to hear that Mowgli is now in the jungle. He encountered Kaa afterward, who had seen Mowgli. Kaa at first insisted he didn't know where Mowgli was, but Shere Khan knew better and intimidated him, even though Kaa was telling the truth.

Out of fear, Kaa told Khan to search by the swamp. However, when Khan arrived, Mowgli is nowhere to be found and he splashes the water in fury as he says "That snake lied to me!" The vultures return and become uneasy when their newest member Lucky begins to constantly mock him. After a few "jokes", Shere Khan tricks Lucky into revealing Mowgli's whereabouts. Before Khan leaves, he viciously mauls Lucky as revenge for the annoyance and presumably kills him. Later on, he found Shanti and Ranjan and cornered them. Mowgli then appeared to find them and Khan confronted him.

Mowgli ran away and Khan pursued him to a temple in the middle of a pool of lava. After Baloo and Shanti teamed up and started to bang gongs with Mowgli, one fell down revealing Shanti. He then said he would kill her if Mowgli wouldn't come out. Mowgli did and he pursued him and Shanti after knocking Baloo aside. Mowgli and Shanti jumped onto a tiger statue right over a pit of lava with Shere Khan right behind them. Before he could kill them, the statue's head fell off towards the lava. Baloo saved Mowgli and Shanti, while Khan fell into the pit. Rather than perishing, he landed on a slab of rock and was trapped underneath the statue's head. Lucky, still alive but lost the feathers on his body and has a bruised right eye, then flew down and started to tease Khan again, much to his annoyance.

Shere Khan appeared as a young cub in the animated series Jungle Cubs, voiced by Jason Marsden. In the series, it was shown that Shere Khan was friends with Baloo, Bagheera, Hathi, Louie, and Kaa during childhood. Shere Khan was more of a bully and cocky in the series rather than a dangerous predator. Khan often tagged along with Baloo and friends on many adventures, usually trying to prove he's braver than they are. In the series, Shere Khan is given an American accent, while in other appearances, Khan speaks with a British accent. He seems to be the oldest of the cubs. He is sometimes called Khanny by others.

In spite of being a cub, Khan still holds his intimidating demeanor and continues to strike fear into the hearts of many of the jungle's inhabitants. However, his cocky attitude can get him and his friends into trouble with foes even he's frightened by, usually by bigger animals. Khan prefers to refer to the others as his followers rather than his friends, even though he obviously enjoys spending time with them. During the second season though, while still friends with the other cubs, he becomes less often seen with them and spends more time hunting. Much like an adult, Khan was sometimes found with Kaa. In one episode, the duo teamed up to take advantage of Louie, after he accidentally injured them. Acting as if they were too injured to do anything themselves, they spent the day bossing the ape around.

Khan is the least physically-changed of the cubs during the second season: He is slightly taller with brighter fur and a sleeker build, but still has the same voice actor.

In Jungle Cubs: Born to Be Wild DVD, Khan, as an adult, returned to murder Mowgli yet again; however, Baloo was able to throw a beehive onto the tiger's head right before he could, having him run off in pain.

Shere Khan appeared in the TV series House of Mouse as a recurring guest, usually seen sitting either alone or with Kaa. In most of his pairings with Kaa, he is often seen holding Kaa by the neck, like in the movie.

In his most notable appearance in "The Mouse Who Came to Dinner", Mortimer Mouse was pretending to be the club's critic (which was really Lumiere) to have Mickey and friends obey him, annoying them and the other guests including Shere Khan. When Mortimer demanded real entertainment (instead of Huey, Dewey, and Louie), Shere Khan agreed with Lumiere (who stated that the entertainment is excellent) that Mortimer was the one who was annoying and asked "Do you mind?" to which Mortimer replied, "Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do mind, Stripey! Somebody get Tigger's evil twin here a ball of yarn!" Later, when it's revealed Mortimer is the star of the "celebrity roast", Shere Khan comments "How delightful," causing Mortimer to retort, "Oh be quiet, Mr. Cat Food!"

A dish called Shere Khan's Flan, named after the villainous tiger, is mentioned by Goofy in "Rent Day".

In "Dining Goofy", Shere Khan and Kaa were accidentally given broccoli by Goofy. He used one of his claws on Goofy to make it clear that he (and Kaa) was not a vegetarian. Soon after Goofy was replaced by advanced technology, Shere Khan and Kaa's meal order was corrected and they both got a giant steak to eat.

In "Goofy's Menu Magic", when a food shortage occurred, Goofy attempted to serve Shere Khan his shoe for dinner (an apparent reference to the Goofy short "Tiger Trouble"). Shere Khan, however, was unamused.

In "Ask Von Drake", Shere Khan appears with Kaa during "The Ludwig Von Drake Song".

Despite appearing in the series itself, Shere Khan never appeared in its movie Mickey's House of Villains, as Kaa is the only villain from The Jungle Book seen joining the Disney Villains, led by Jafar to take over the House of Mouse. However, in the opening sequence, a tiger's paw is seen on-screen as the characters are walking towards the club. So it could be possible that only Shere Khan's paw was seen once in the movie. It is also possible that he was apart of the House of Mouse's take over with the other villains.

Shere Khan appeared as the final boss in the Virgin Studios video game adaptation of The Jungle Book within Chapter X: The Wastelands. Here, he swipes and roars at Mowgli as the latter pelts him with bananas to lead to Khan's eventual defeat. Shere Khan's defeat is a reference to the first film but his tail was not tied when it burns with fire on the tail tips causing him to run around in circles in defeat.

Shere Khan is also featured in the video game The Jungle Book 2.

Shere Khan also appears in The Jungle Book: Rhythm N'Groove PlayStation 2 game. As the game follows the storyline of the original film, Shere Khan's goal is the same as the film. However, Khan appears much earlier in the game. During the climax of the game, Shere Khan is given his own song in the form of "Run".

Shere Khan appeared with The Jungle Book collection as the antagonist. During the storyline, Khan arrives in the Kingdom in search of Mowgli, but is fended off by Bagheera. Mowgli then decides to take on Khan, himself, but is aided by Baloo, Bagheera and King Louie. Once Khan gets fire to his tail, he flees the kingdom in fear.

Shere Khan is a playable character in Disney Heroes: Battle Mode. Introduced in Update 5.7. He is the fifth Jungle Book character in the game. He is a Front-Line Damage character on the Blue Team. Shere Khan uses his tiger abilities like his giant claws to swipe enemies, roar at enemies, and prowl to become invisible in the battles.

Shere Khan's friendship campaigns are with Scar and Bagheera. He also has friendship campaigns with Cruella De Vil.

Shere Khan is featured as a boss in QuackShot, battling Donald Duck. He attacks by roaring fire from his mouth.

For Disney Universe, a Shere Khan costume is available to buy on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for The Jungle Book costume pack.

A Shere Khan Costume appeared in Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, each half (top and bottom) being purchasable in the in-game shop for 11,000 Kudos each from September 7 to September 9, 2021

At Disney's Animal Kingdom, Shere Khan played the role as the main antagonist in Journey into the Jungle Book and preys upon Mowgli trying to do away with him as he did in the film.

In the "Friendship" segment of Happily Ever After at the Magic Kingdom, the balcony of Cinderella Castle sang the last bit of "That's What Friends are For" in his deep voice.

During the 2015 Halloween celebration, Shere Khan's likeness was featured alongside other Disney villains at the parks.

In France, Shere Khan can be seen poking his head out of the tree in the parade's jungle-themed float for Disney's Once Upon a Dream Parade.

In Hong Kong Disneyland's Flights of Fantasy Parade, Shere Khan makes an appearance at the very top of the jungle float.

He also appeared as one of Maleficent's invited guests during the finale of Villains Night Out!, and made an appearance during the final scene of The Nightmare Experiment.

According to Alan Burnett's early bible, Shere Khan originally was supposed to be called "Mr. Downs" in TaleSpin. But that idea was later scrapped for unknown reasons.

• Shere Khan (TaleSpin)
• Shere Khan (Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book)
• Shere Khan (The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story)
• Shere Khan (The Jungle Book 2016)

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