The Walking Dead season 9 is beginning to loom large.
Pegged for an early October premiere on AMC, this year’s installment of the über-popular zombie drama will go down in history as Andrew Lincoln’s last hurrah. Ditto for Lauren Cohan, whose Maggie Rhee is only expected to appear in a number of episodes before she’s gone for good.
The same applies to Rick Grimes, given it was recently confirmed that Lincoln’s leader won’t be appearing in the second half of The Walking Dead season 9 come 2019, raising all manner of question marks over Rick’s final scene. Can AMC really kill off the show’s one true protagonist? Who knows.
What we do know, however, is that the network is beginning to drum up excitement for the new run, as evidenced by this fresh gallery of action shots that can be found below.
First spotted by Deadline, there are 12 in total, and it should be noted that every single photo is from The Walking Dead season 9, episode 1. It’ll mark a pretty significant sea change for the series, too, what with the 18-month time jump about to come into play.
That’s something we see take into effect up above, as Rick’s sporting an ash-grey beard, while many of the other stalwarts appear a little older than they did during season 8.
It’s also difficult to wean any potential story clues from this fresh gallery, though the opening episode appears to revolve around Rick and Michonne’s convoy, and why they must get it to safety before nightfall. Perhaps they’re transporting precious cargo? Or it’s simply their last line of defense against the Walkers…
Whatever the case, The Walking Dead season 9 shuffles back onto the airwaves on October 7th.
