The Walking Dead Season Five: Five Things We Know

, AMC released the first promotional poster for their upcoming fifth season of The Walking Dead, an adaptation of the Image Comics/Skybound Entertainment series by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard. The image, seemingly a riff on last month's "Terminus: who will arrive/who will survive?" posters designed for the Season Four finale, features Rick Grimes and the caption "survive." It features series star Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, squatting apparently in the Church at Terminus (that's where the stained glass window reflected onto the ground seems to have come from) and holding a gun...suggesting that he will free himself of the season-ending cliffhanger and launch his war on Terminus sooner than later? Based on interviews with producers, writers and stars that have not since, to the best of our knowledge, been contradicted or reconsidered, here are five things we know about October's upcoming fifth season of AMC's The Walking Dead.

There is no time jump This one stands to reason since, you know, it would be fairly unbelievable to buy that the survivors have just been chilling in the boxcar for six months, waiting for the audience to catch up with them so they can make their move. Nevertheless, it's something that was established before the finale, with Robert Kirkman having said it in an interview and then fans around the Internet using it as a justification for their belief that Carl might be in danger (time jumps, which don't happen between arcs of the comic books, have been justified on TV in part because 14-year-old Chandler Riggs has been growing so much during the off-season).

Three new series regularsEarlier today, AMC brought on Andrew J. West, Christian Serratos and Alanna Masterson as series regulars for the fifth season, seemingly a show of faith in the survivors' two newest females and West, who will seemingly play next season's Big Bad. Of course, it's The Walking Dead and you know what they say about anybody who gets any real screen time or character development. Does becoming a series regular guarantee you a long life -- or just a spectacular death? While Rosita -- the character played by Twilight veteran Serratos -- has been a fixture in the comics for more than 60 issues now, Tara (Masteron's character) is original to the TV series. After Andrea, who remains alive in the comics, died last year on TV, though, she wasn't really ever replaced. Will Tara become the first big loss the survivors suffer in the new season, or will she be a long-term addition a la Daryl Dixon? There's already some speculation that adding West as a regular means Gareth and Terminus will remain a focus for the full fourth season, but showrunner Scott Gimple, who took over at the beginning of Season Four and told two very different half-seasons over the last six months or so, told Talking Dead the other night that the show "reinvents itself" every  eight episodes or so, suggesting perhaps that, like The Governor in Season Four, Gareth's curtain call could come long before his "series regular" contract expires.

More characters from the comics coming Everyone's talking about Negan. It probably (alright, definitely) won't be Negan this soon. While the showrunners may have been seeding Negan's story for the future (see below), more likely candidates to be introduced right away exist and wouldn't steal the thunder from Gareth and his Terminians. Father Gabriel is one such candidate; he appeared in the comics around the same time as the cannibals who seem to be reworked in the Terminians, and gave the survivors sanctuary for a while...something they might need if only a small number of them escape Terminus and need to plan an assault to get the rest back, or something of the sort.

Maggie's sister may have been stolen away in the night, not to be seen for the rest of the season, but her story isn't over. "She got taken, she's not back yet," series creator Kirkman said in a postmortem conversation about last night's episode at the official website for The Walking Dead comic books. "I can say that Terminus has a lot of signs out there and it's certainly possible that all kinds of different people out there could make their way to Terminus in some way, so maybe Beth shows up to Terminus in Season 5… maybe not. I think I can say that Beth's story is not over. We'll see her again, maybe in Season 5, maybe not." There's a chance she was actually rescued by Gabriel, not kidnapped -- or that if she was kidnapped it was by the Saviors. That could give us a Beth-free season, only to have her turn up already incorporated into the Alexandria Safe-Zone, the Hilltop Colony or even The Sanctuary and set up the beginning of the story that will lead to "All-Out War."

Carol and Tyreese are "out there," but almost certainly not at Terminus All we know about Carol and Tyreese is that they're still out there. Last night on Talking Dead, host Chris Hardwick asked showrunner Scott Gimple about the pair, suggesting that they might turn out to be inside one of the other boxcars and already hostages, Gimple contested that idea, saying that they were "out there somewhere," but not in one of the boxcars. It's likely they haven't yet made it to Terminus, since they were likely slowed down by traveling with the kids and the baby, and also camping out overnight at The Grove. So…will they appear in the season premiere?