First Look at ‘The Walking Dead’ Without Rick Grimes

AMC has released a preview for the next three episodes of The Walking Dead, picking up six years after Rick Grimes’ (Andrew Lincoln) disappearance.

The trailer features new looks for Michonne (Danai Gurira), Carol (Melissa McBride), and a since aged-up Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming), as well as a new status quo for Daryl (Norman Reedus).

The Walking Dead 906, “Who Are You Now?” will establish the pack of new characters first introduced in the preceding episode as they’re welcomed into Alexandria: Magna (Nadia Hilkes), Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura), Luke (Dan Fogler), and sisters Connie (Lauren Ridloff) and Kelly (Angel Theory).

In 907, “Stradivarius,” Carol will seek out Daryl, now living in a wilderness teeming with walkers. A lone and distraught Daryl walked off into the woods upon witnessing the apparent death of brother Rick at the bridge, unaware Rick was rescued by Anne (Pollyanna McIntosh) and whisked away to places unknown in a helicopter.

The Season Nine mid-season finale, “Evolution,” will see “a small rescue mission brave a dangerous herd in their hunt for a missing comrade, only to discover a surprising threat that could doom them all.”

908 signals the arrival of the Whisperers, a new enemy group of ruthless savages who use walker skin as a form of deadly camouflage. As revealed in the Season Nine San Diego Comic-Con trailer and the sneak peek above, Eugene (Josh McDermitt) and Rosita (Christian Serratos) look to be the first of the survivors to encounter the disguised Whisperers, who can be heard hissing, “Where are they?!”

“We’ll go into a really great storyline that people are anticipating, called the Whisperers,” new showrunner Angela Kang previewed on The Walking Dead Season Nine Preview Special over the summer.

“If you’re a fan of the comic you know exactly what that means, although the way we do it may not be exactly the way it goes in the comic — we always remix things — and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s better to learn as you go along.”

The back half of Season Nine will see the emergence of Whisperer leader Alpha (Samantha Morton), vicious number two Beta (Ryan Hurst), and Alpha’s daughter, Lydia (Cassady McClincy), who in the comics found herself romantically entangled with Carl Grimes.

The Romeo and Juliet angle could play out with Lydia and Henry (Matt Lintz, taking over from younger brother Macsen). A teenaged Henry can be seen in the new trailer standing up to mother Carol.

“We’re making the show that we want to make right now and you can feel it on set, you can feel it all over the place,” Reedus told Deadline of the post-Rick Grimes era.

“I really feel the scripts and the stories and the episodes are even better in the back eight, I really do. They’re f—ing epic, you know, and they’re just crushing and they’re severe, all of them. The show’s morphing into something else but it’s got the heart and the feel of the original show, there’s just new life breathing through it.”

Rick Grimes’ story will continue to unfold in a trilogy of television movies expected to premiere on AMC in the future. Production is expected to begin in 2019.

The Walking Dead continues to air new episodes Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.