The Walking Dead’s 5-minute preview teases a post-Negan world

AMC’s new preview of the first 5 minutes of The Walking Dead season 9 premiere features the full cast — and a post-Negan world.

We’re in celebration mode! The Walking Dead season 9 premiere is officially six days away! In anticipation of the grand event, AMC has released a sneak peek of the first five minutes of episode one titled “A New Beginning” to whet our palates for the remarkable season ahead.

Season 9 starts off with a view of post-Negan Alexandria. Rick Grimes discovers that Michonne and Judith, who is finally past toddler age, are peacefully painting family portraits on the house porch. While the painting Judith is working on features her current family including Michonne and Rick with a prominent belly, I felt all the feels at the painting Judith made of Carl that’s hanging in the background made noticeable by the ring around his eye that represents his patch.

The second half of the video gives us a glimpse of the Sanctuary with workers preparing food to be fermented and filtering water. It looks like these former Saviors are running a tight operation. Daryl even has a sweet bike shop with a few people working now as mechanics. Daryl must feel like he’s living a career dream come true.

Daryl gets word that some of the Saviors have tied a walker to a giant wooden display to scare off crows and he immediately intercepts and shoots an arrow through the walkers head. I’m thinking Daryl’s feeling a little PTSD. He has no intentions of letting the Sanctuary resemble what it once was, covered in moaning walkers as a protection field.

The preview ends with Daryl calling a meet up at the “rally point.” According to Entertainment Weekly, they are all traveling through Washington, D.C., which was a target destination before Eugene admitted to being a fraud. Did they suddenly figure there was some logic behind visiting the city?

Watch The Walking Dead‘s latest preview here:

Tara receives Eugene’s call via walkie-talkie for Daryl’s proposed meetup and relays the message to Jesus while on horseback. Jesus, whose sporting an awesome black leather trench coat and looks like the post-apocalyptic Neo from The Matrix, is out in the field with Aaron killing off zombie stragglers. It seems that the respective areas have kept to themselves after putting Negan on house arrest. Aaron has been predominately busy with the Kingdom and their growth, while Jesus has been loyally working at Hilltop training kids how to fight walkers.

All our favorites meet up in what looks like a town square. Rick and Michonne lead the way on their horses killing off walkers and making way for the wagons and other riders behind them. So far, it looks like King Ezekiel, Maggie, Gabriel, Tara, Jesus, Aaron, Carol, and Daryl on bike, are headed to this new destination. There are a few extra people, but I’m assuming they are new characters absorbed from Negan’s squad.

We have many questions, starting with what are they doing in Washington, D.C.? Where did they get all these horses, what is life like for Negan now, and when did Aaron grow out that awesome beard? To find out what happens and watch the full episode, we’ll have to wait for The Walking Dead‘s season 9 premiere.

The Walking Dead season 9 premiere airs on Sunday, October 7 on AMC.