The VFX team for Zack Snyder’s Army of The Dead modelled the film’s zombie tiger after one of Carole Baskin’s tigers.

Producer Deborah Snyder reportedly explained to Collider that plans were in the works before Netflix sensation Tiger King was released last year.

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“According to Snyder, the visual effects team called different animal sanctuaries in order to get a real-life reference for modelling and animating Valentine,” the publication’s report read.

“The chosen candidate ended up being a tiger owned by Baskin, now internationally famous after the world got briefly distracted from the pandemic by following Baskin’s long-time feud with Joe Exotic on Tiger King.”

The film’s team reportedly spent a week at Baskin’s sanctuary before the series aired, showing the longstanding feud between Baskin and Joe Exotic.

Deborah Snyder then added: “At least they got out of there alive.”

Army of the Dead will mark Zack Snyder’s first project since his reworking of 2017’s Justice League, and is due for release on Netflix on May 21.

“There are no other cuts of this movie. You don’t have to see a bastardised version — you get to see the awesome version first,” Snyder said of Army of the Dead.

Asked whether he thought he had chances of surviving a zombie apocalypse, the director added: “Probably not. The fictionalisation of zombies tends to give you a false sense of security about your ability to fight or understand how zombies might act. That would be a recipe for disaster.”