AMC

The Walking Dead has the unique problem of promoting Season 7 without eliminating any cast from Negan’s potential victim pool, but at least two were pretty easily crossed off the list. A new clip from Season 7 fresh out of NYCC sees Rick and Negan in a deadly post-Lucille staredown, but is Rick about to wind up with a major injury of his own?

Walking Dead companion series Fear The Walking Dead wrapped up its second season with a few hints of the world leaning farther into the zombie apocalypse, but fans will always wonder if the two series would ever cross over. Robert Kirkman even offered a tantalizing hint at New York Comic-Con, suggesting a Fear-ful origin for one of the comics’ current villains.

Even as Walking Dead comic fans knew it to be coming, AMC viewers may have been taken back by the Season 7 trailer appearance of “King” Ezekiel and his pet tiger Shiva. Season 7 brought the creature to life with animatronics and CGI, while creator Robert Kirkman admits he wrote the tiger in to see how a TV series might handle it.

Whether or not The Walking Dead turns into a 50-year franchise like Star Trek, the AMC series will inevitably either conclude before, or extend beyond Robert Kirkman’s comic source material. Whenever we get to that point, Kirkman at least confirms the two mediums will craft different endings, so as not to spoil one another.

Seven seasons in, The Walking Dead serves AMC’s best interest to extend and expand itself as long as possible . We’ve even heard vague suggestions of The Walking Dead continuing indefinitely, as with its comic inspiration, but AMC boss Josh Sapan took things a step further to proclaim their flagship horror-drama as an endlessly renewal franchise, a la Star Trek.

There’s no turning back for The Walking Dead Season 7, especially with just over a month before Negan’s victim finally steps (or kneels) forward. Kicking off the final countdown is some stylish new Negan key art, along with a Kingdom-centric new promo to establish the enigmatic Ezekiel, and his fearsome companion.

The Walking Dead didn’t afford us much time to get to know Jeffrey Dean Morgan‘’s Negan outside of of the character’s first comic appearance, but if Season 7 is any indication, the foul-mouthed sociopath is as unsubtle as ever. A new interview sees Morgan discussing his character’s relationship to trademark weapon Lucille, and … well, “It’s his d—.”

We’ve over a month before The Walking Dead finally pulls back the curtain on Season 7 (and Negan’s victim), but AMC isn’t about to make that wait any easier. The latest promo for Season 7 once again keeps the focus on Negan himself, even showing off a bit more of his home.

The Walking Dead has been fortunate so far to have not directly leaked the identity of Negan’s kill from the Season 6 finale. That said, process of elimination has cleared at least few names off the list, while another Season 7 star seems to hint that they too were spared the wrath of Lucille.

You may have heard an old anecdote around The Walking Dead, that initial network notes for the undead drama questioned whether the series needed zombies at all, but it seems AMC’s flagship hit was practically almost iZombie. Producer Gale Ann Hurd reveals that NBC wanted to tweak the premise into a police procedural solving zombie-related cases.