The Walking Dead season 6 finale trailer offers a first look at Lucille and Negan

The Saviours leader's iconic weapon of choice will be making a dramatic debut in next week's episode

The Walking Dead's season six finale trailer shows Negan (AMC)

UPDATE: AMC has since released a closer look at Negan and Lucille which you can see below.

Season six of The Walking Dead is drawing to a close with a feature-length finale episode that is set to air next week.

Following the season's penultimate episode "East," a trailer for the 90-minute spectacle has been released and it does the perfect job of foreshadowing plenty of doom without giving anything away.

The one thing fans can definitely bank on, however, is the debut appearance of the oft-mentioned fearsome Saviours leader Negan.

Shown from behind, not only do we get a glimpse of the adversary played by Jeffery Dean Morgan but his weapon of choice also which will be extremely familiar to readers of the graphic novels which serve as the zombie drama's source material.

The weapon in question is a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire that the antagonist refers to as Lucille.

This being a show unafraid to dispatch of much-loved characters, it's clear that somebody will fall victim to Lucille in the season finale with fans touting Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun), Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) and Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) - all original characters who have appeared on the show since it began - as the most likely candidates.

Fan favourite Dixon found himself in a particularly life-threatening situation at the climax of the latest episode which aired in the UK last night (28 March) with actor Reedus telling fans they should be "extremely worried" for the character.

The Walking Dead's season six finale, titled "Last Day on Earth," will air in the UK on FOX at 9 PM.