‘The Walking Dead’ season 7, episode 9: New Andrew Lincoln photo; the story ahead

With the midseason premiere of “The Walking Dead” on February 12 slowly approaching, the folks over at AMC are starting to become a little more open about some of the material that they’re willing to release on the show. Today, what we have comes in the form of the new photo above of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), coupled with the release of the following information detailing much of what is coming in the final eight episodes of the season:

“Rick’s group will find out yet again that the world isn’t what they thought it was. It’s much bigger than anything they’ve seen so far. While they have a singular purpose – to defeat Negan – it won’t come easy. More importantly, victory will require more than Alexandria. They need the numbers of the Kingdom and the Hilltop, but, similar to how Rick felt, Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and Gregory (Xander Berkeley) do not want bloodshed. To convince them otherwise will take more than speeches. The lengths Rick and the group will have to go to in order to find weapons, food and new fighters is nothing short of remarkable.”

With some of that information in mind, you do have to think that the odds are even higher that we’re going to eventually see Tara eventually spill the beans on Oceanside, given that they have some of the resources necessary in order to help in the find. With their help, and maybe the support of a few other places out there across Negan’s sweeping empire, maybe it is possible that the group can put a significant dent in everything that the Saviors are doing.

For those wondering, the press release today also made it clear that the first guests of “Talking Dead” in 2017 are going to be the man behind Ezekiel in Payton, and then also executive producer Greg Nicotero. The show is going to air starting at 10:13 p.m. Eastern time, which means that the premiere is clocked in at 73 minutes.

If you missed it, we recently wrote a full guide to everything that Rick should do if he wants to be successful in this mission. Check that out over at the link here.

Meanwhile, be sure to tell us in the comments precisely what you’re interested in seeing coming up in the next part of the season. (Photo: AMC.)