AMC Reveals First Poster And SDCC Plans For The Walking Dead Season 9

AMC is on the verge of a truly historic SDCC showcase.

Amid panels for Preacher, Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad‘s 10-year reunion (10 years!), the network has detailed its plans for The Walking Dead season 9 and its sibling series, Fear The Walking Dead, which is currently in the midst of its fourth season.

The former will be of particular interest to longtime Walking Dead fans, as this year’s installment will signal Rick’s last hurrah, all the while bidding farewell to Maggie Rhee as fellow series veteran Lauren Cohan makes the transition over to ABC drama, Whiskey Cavalier.

It’s the end of an era, then, but you know how they say these things tend to go out with a bang? AMC has officially unveiled its key art for The Walking Dead season 9 featuring a buzzcut Rick Grimes and a Washington D.C. that’s beginning to crumble under the weight of the apocalypse. Michonne (Danai Gurira), Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) also feature. And hey, there’s that pesky helicopter that has been looming overhead throughout seasons 7 and 8!

Expect those Comic-Con plans to begin in earnest on Friday, July 20th, and here’s the inside scoop of all those set to appear – for the record, we’ve previously learned that Jon Bernthal will swing by to announce his return as Shane Walsh.

Via AMC:

The Walking Dead panel will take place on Friday, July 20 from 12:15 p.m.-1:15 p.m. in Hall H following Fear the Walking Dead. Panelists include Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Lauren Cohan, Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Executive producer and showrunner Angela Kang, executive producers Scott M. Gimple, Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, David Alpert, and executive producer, director and special effects make-up supervisor Greg Nicotero will also attend the panel moderated by Yvette Nicole Brown.

The Walking Dead returns for its ninth season in October. Before that, though, AMC’s companion series, Fear the Walking Dead, will shuffle back onto the airwaves for Season 4B on August 12th.