The Walking Dead’s season 9 synopsis and key art previews a world falling apart

With the world around them quite literally falling apart, will The Walking Dead’s survivors find a way to truly rebuild? Or will new threats take them out?

The Walking Dead‘s season 9 may have a peaceful start, but it won’t last long. This news comes by way of AMC’s newly released synopsis for the show, along with portraits of our favorite characters and key art that foreshadows the end for Rick Grimes.

Despite Rick leading the newly unified communities to rebuild, the world around them is quite literally crumbling. In key art for the new season, we see Rick and Co. standing atop ruins and a destroyed government building in the background. Previous photos released for season 9 previewed a Washington, D.C. trip. However, this art shows and the synopsis show that “the world they knew is rapidly changing, as man-made structures continue to degrade, and nature takes over, changing the landscape and creating new challenges for our survivors.”

Here’s the full synopsis for The Walking Dead‘s season 9, per AMC:

"Last season brought the culmination of “All Out War,” which pitted Rick Grimes and his group of survivors against the Saviors and their cunning leader, Negan. With Negan’s life in his hands, Rick had a character-defining choice in front of him. By making the unilateral decision to spare Negan, Rick upheld the values his late son, Carl, championed in order to build for the future, but created conflict within his group. Now, we see our survivors a year and a half after the end of the war, rebuilding civilization under Rick’s steadfast leadership. It is a time of relative peace among the communities as they work together, looking to the past to forge the future, but the world they knew is rapidly changing as man-made structures continue to degrade, and nature takes over, changing the landscape and creating new challenges for our survivors. As time passes, the communities confront unexpected obstacles, danger, and of course, walkers, but nothing quite prepares them for the formidable force they are about to encounter, which threatens the very idea of civilization that our survivors have worked so hard to build."

As for our survivors, their portraits may not reveal much other than some moody lighting in the forest. Well, except Eugene, who is definitely working a new look with his hair (whether it is the right look, we’ll let you decide).

Check out The Walking Dead season 9 portraits and key art here.