The Walking Dead is headed for some serious changes over the next year.  Season nine of the zombie survival drama will see a time jump from the season eight finale, and this season will be the last for Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes).  TWD has had some trouble staying as gripping as it used to be, and a lot of fans will look hard at how the show manages this transition before deciding whether or not to keep the show in their rotation.  TWD Season 9 will premiere on AMC on October 7, 2018.  More below from Comic Book Resources.

There are three months to go before The Walking Dead returns to AMC for its ninth season, but that’s not too early for the show’s cast and crew to converge at Comic-Con International in San Diego‘s Hall H for a panel highlighting what to expect when the show returns in October of this year. Alongside executive producers Angela Kang, Scott M. Gimple, Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, David Alpert and Greg Nicotero, stars Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Lauren Cohan, Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride and Jeffrey Dean Morgan were on hand to offer fans a few teases about Season 9. CBR is there live, so keep hitting refresh for the latest details.

The Season 9 premiere will be Sunday October 7th. The panel opened with the first look at Season 9’s trailer:

It opens with Rick visiting Negan in a makeshift dungeon — spoiler alert, they still hate each other. The time jump is confirmed by the look we get of Maggie and Glenn’s baby who’s probably about a year old. The communities are all looking far more sophisticated, developed and idyllic. We get shots of Rick and Michonne riding horses and fighting walkers and in general being #couplegoals. Rick has fully welcomed the Sanctuary into the fold and actively helps them rebuild. A team winds up exploring D.C. for an unknown reason, and one of the new communities (Toledo) appears to cause serious problems and be the new nemesis. Jadis has fully integrated into some society and looks pretty happy. There is underlying strife between Rick, Maggie and Darryl that looks very serious — not surprising considering Maggie’s promise to kill Negan when she gets the first chance.  Eugene and a partially blind Gabriel appear, as well as Carol who’s questioning her position in peacetime.

And finally, after the final title card rolled, we got a shot of two people sliding down a riverbank and covering themselves with mud to hide from a train of walkers. As the walkers pass, one of them whispers “Where… are… they?” So, you know, take that as you will.

*Text from CBR