The Walking Dead: Check out the first photos from the mid-season premiere

See full gallery on TechnoBuffalo

We’re still reeling from the arrival of Negan on The Walking Dead, who made his presence felt with the help of his trusty bat Lucille. And he’ll become even more central to the show when it returns for the second half of its seventh season on Feb. 12.

AMC shared a handful of new photos ahead of the show’s return, along with a detailed description of what to expect. As expected, things are pretty dire for Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and his group of survivors. Will they persevere against the odds? That’s what we’re waiting to find out.

Of course, if you haven’t seen any episodes from season seven, there are spoilers ahead.

You can read AMC’s full description of the show’s anticipated return here:

The first half of Season 7 saw Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the group broken by Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), forced to fall under his will and brutally convinced to live under his rules. The second half of the season will focus on preparing for war and gathering the supplies and numbers to take Negan down once and for all.

Rick’s group will find out yet again that the world isn’t what they thought it was. It’s much bigger than anything they’ve seen so far. While they have a singular purpose – to defeat Negan – it won’t come easy. More importantly, victory will require more than Alexandria. They need the numbers of the Kingdom and the Hilltop, but, similar to how Rick felt, Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and Gregory (Xander Berkeley) do not want bloodshed. To convince them otherwise will take more than speeches. The lengths Rick and the group will have to go to in order to find weapons, food and new fighters is nothing short of remarkable.

We’ll meet new survivors in incredible places. We’ll see Rick and the group tested in ways we’ve never seen before. We’ll see treachery from people we trust. Rick is confident as he will see his group and many others band together with the common goal of taking down Negan. But no amount of planning will prepare the group for all-out war with Negan and his army.

It’ll be an all out war

So, the rest of the season will focus on Rick’s singular mission to eliminate Negan, who controls an army of fanatics. Rick and his group aren’t exactly formidable, especially after the events of the first few episodes. But that hasn’t stopped them before.

Let’s just hope when the war actually commences, AMC doesn’t leave audiences with another annoying cliffhanger.

The Walking Dead returns to TV on Feb. 12.