‘The Walking Dead’ season 6, episode 9 preview: Return date for Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, cast

On Sunday night, “The Walking Dead” is signing off for the first half of season 6; we’re writing this article while watching the midseason finale, mostly dreading what is coming up around every corner.

We’re going to have deeper analysis of the actual events of tonight’s episode coming up in the future, but for now, we are here to focus primarily on a different subject: When the show is going to returning to AMC with new episodes. The network has already confirmed that this date in particular is going to be none other than Sunday, February 14, and in the same timeslot. Let’s just hope that everyone is feeling extra-romantic…

The best news that we can offer you is that for the second half of the season, there don’t seem to be any plans to split up the flagship show from “Talking Dead,” which is great news given that nobody wants to have to deal with another situation like we’ve had this fall with “Into the Badlands.” (Sure, we realize that this is a total first-world problem, but we’re a TV site in the age of viewers wanting immediate satisfaction.)

While we cannot get into details on the second half of the season just yet, we do hope for more awesomeness from Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, and the rest of the cast … just as we also hope for Negan to rear his head and be everywhere near as terrifying as we imagine he would be.

Update: After tonight, it looks like most of the gang will be joining us again in the new year! Deanna’s the most notable departure … and c’mon, you had to know she was going.

Update 2: Want to read about the bonus scene hinting at Negan’s arrival? Head over here.

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