Today, AMC released their official key art, synopsis and cast/character images from the highly-anticipated new season of The Walking Dead. Season 9, which will be the last for headliner Andrew Lincoln, is set to premiere this coming Sunday, October 7th at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on the network. It'll pick up after last season culmination of “All Out War,” which pitted Rick Grimes (Lincoln) and his group of survivors against the Saviors and their cunning leader, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). With Negan’s life in his hands, Rick had a character-defining choice in front of him: By making the unilateral decision to spare Negan, Rick upheld the values his late son, Carl, championed in order to build for the future, but created conflict within his group.

The official Season 9 synopsis follows below:

Now, viewers will see the survivors a year and a half after the end of the war, rebuilding civilization under Rick’s steadfast leadership. It is a time of relative peace among the communities as they work together, looking to the past to forge the future, but the world they knew is rapidly changing as man-made structures continue to degrade, and nature takes over, changing the landscape and creating new challenges for our survivors.

 

As time passes, the communities confront unexpected obstacles, danger, and of course, walkers, but nothing quite prepares them for the formidable force they are about to encounter, which threatens the very idea of civilization that our survivors have worked so hard to build.

Based on the comic book series written by Robert Kirkman and published by Image Comics, The Walking Dead reigns the number one drama on television among adults 18-49 for the last six seasons. The series is executive produced by chief content officer Scott M. Gimple, showrunner Angela Kang, Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, David Alpert, Greg Nicotero, Tom Luse and Denise Huth.

Check out the new selection of cast and character images below: