‘The Walking Dead’: 9 Things We Know About Season 7 (and 1 Thing About Season 8)

Months … been waiting months for the conclusion to the April Season 6 finale cliffhanger of The Walking Dead, the one that teased viewers that one of their favorite characters was about to meet the business end of a stabby, barbed-wire-covered baseball bat. And on Oct. 23, we learn we should be careful what we wish for, because while you can currently play a version of Schrödinger’s Cat with your fave member of Rick Grimes’s group — they’re alive until you see the episode — after the Season 7 premiere, that will no longer be the case for (at least) one of the gang.

Because AMC and the cast and crew of the show worked so hard to keep that big death under wraps for the premiere, definitive details on the new season have been scarce, but here are a few things we know as we head into a premiere that threatens to make us long for the days before (a character to be named later) got (his or her) brains scrambled by Negan.

1. Season 7 will consist of 16 episodes, broken into two eight-episode half-seasons. The 66-minute, Oct. 23 season premiere, “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be,” was written by showrunner Scott Gimple, directed by EP and special effects whiz Greg Nicotero, and will — Gimple promised at New York Comic Con — reveal the answer to the Season 6 cliffhanger of who big baddie Negan beat to death with his barbedwire-covered baseball bat, Lucille.

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2. About Negan’s victim… Those present in the semicircle of doom are, from left to right, Glenn, Rosita, Daryl, Michonne, Abraham, Maggie, Rick, Sasha, Aaron, Carl, and Eugene. We’re almost certain Rick and Carl are safe because Negan instructed his crew to “cut the boy’s other eye out and feed it to his father” if anyone moved or said anything during his impending fatal beatdown of someone in the semicircle, suggesting his Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe “winner” would not be either of them.

As for the rest of the lineup, no one else can be ruled out, but most fan polls reveal that viewers think we’ll be bidding a crushing farewell to Glenn (Steven Yeun) or Abraham (Michael Cudlitz), or Glenn and Abraham, during the premiere.

3. Other characters we can breathe easy about (for now): Carol and Morgan, who were headed off on their own adventure at the end of Season 6. The pair, who are still at odds about their opposing philosophies on killing in the apocalypse, will spend the early part of the season away from Rick’s group, as they join the Kingdom. TWD comic book fans know about the Kingdom, a survivor community led by a theatrical man named Ezekiel, who insists on being called King Ezekiel and who keeps a pet tiger, Shiva, by his side. Ezekiel will be played by Teen Titans and General Hospital actor Khary Payton, while Shiva will be played by CGI.

4. The Kingdom is bigger than Alexandria, in terms of population, and will be one of four communities (at least) that factor into Season 7 and help expand the worldview of Rick and his group. We may get a glimpse of the Kingdom in the season premiere, but will most likely really delve into the community and its citizenry in the second or third episode of the season (an episode directed by Nicotero). The second episode, “The Well,” will be another extended installment, clocking in at 76 minutes.

In addition to Alexandria and the Kingdom, stories will also unfold at the Hilltop and at Negan’s Saviors HQ, which Rick and company thought they had destroyed in Season 6. They will find out early in Season 7 that the Saviors are much stronger, deadlier, organized, and populated than they naively believed.

Related: See ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 7 Photos

5. The Hilltop, led by Gregory (Xander Berkeley), may not continue an alliance with the Alexandrians in Season 7, especially when Gregory finds out that Rick and his group failed in their mission to kill Negan and stop the Saviors from pillaging the Hilltop and its supplies. And that could leave Jesus (Tom Payne), the Hilltop recruiter who helped broker the deal between Rick’s group and Gregory, torn between his home and his new friends in Alexandria.

6. Berkeley, who was promoted to series regular status for Season 7, is part of the largest cast of regulars in TWD history. Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan, Payne, and Austin Amelio, as Daryl Dixon’s nemesis Dwight, were also upped to regular status for Season 7, joining Lauren Cohan (Maggie), Cudlitz, Seth Gilliam (Gabriel), Danai Gurira (Michonne), Lennie James (Morgan), Andrew Lincoln (Rick), Melissa McBride (Carol), Josh McDermitt (Eugene), Ross Marquand (Aaron), Sonequa Martin-Green (Sasha), Alanna Masterson (Tara), Austin Nichols (Spencer), Norman Reedus (Daryl), Chandler Riggs (Carl), Christian Serratos (Rosita), and Yeun to make up the 20-person regular cast.

7. Among the members of the recurring cast for the new season: Corey Hawkins, whose Heath left on a supply run with Tara after the Alexandrians attacked a Saviors base in “Not Tomorrow Yet.” Though he’s the star of Fox’s upcoming 24 reboot, 24: Legacy, Hawkins will appear in at least one Season 7 episode of TWD, made possible by the fact that both series film near Atlanta.

8. That super-intense Season 7 premiere scene that AMC debuted at New York Comic Con earlier this month gave viewers a hint at just how tragic and emotional the fallout of the Negan killing will be, especially after Rick promises to kill Negan, only to have the bat-carrying baddie give him a speech about the importance of having a “right-hand man” and drag him off to an RV with a hatchet tucked into his belt. Could one of the comic book’s other iconic moments — when Rick loses his hand — finally happen? Producers have long maintained that such a development would be completely impractical and expensive from a special effects POV. But it would also come as another blow to a now devastated Rick and his crew, whose confidence was at an all-time high before that tragic formation of the semicircle of doom. And while the Governor was the chopper-offer of the hand in the comics, it would seem appropriately dramatic for Negan to do the deed now, just so he can be totally sure he’s put a big thorn in the side of the Ricktatorship.

9. If there remains any doubt about just how devastating the events of the season premiere will be, consider the inspiration for the episode’s title. In the Season 1 TWD finale, CDC scientist Dr. Edwin Jenner (The Americans star Noah Emmerich) wants to blow up the building with Rick and his people inside, thus sparing them the horrors of the apocalypse. Rick pleads with Jenner to allow his people to flee before he blows himself up, and when Jenner agrees, Rick tells him he’s grateful. “The day will come when you won’t be,” Jenner replies, and this, the day on which Negan murders a beloved member of the Grimes gang, is that day that Jenner insisted would be worse than dying in an exploding building. So, yeah. Devastating.

10. The series has already been renewed for Season 8, which will premiere in the fall of 2017 with the 100th episode of The Walking Dead. The Season 5 premiere featured the cannibalism of Terminus and Carol’s heroic (and kickass) rescue of her friends; the Season 6 premiere featured Rick’s group trying to clear hundreds of zombies from the walker pit; and the Season 7 premiere will include what promises to be the most heartbreaking death ever. What will they possibly do for Episode 100?

The Walking Dead Season 7 premieres Oct. 23 at 9 p.m. on AMC.