The Walking Dead: Negan ditches Lucille for new weapon entirely in brand new season 7 images

New faces and a few old familiars feature in the brand new stills

UPDATE: An extra image has been released showing Negan ditching Lucille in favour of a brand new weapon.

has Fans of The Walking Dead deserve a form of trophy for putting up with the cliffhanger thrown their way at the end of season six.

While there's just under three months to go until they discover which character was offed by new villain Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the release of some new images should help them bide the time.

Crucially, none of the 11 characters in contention to be offed - including Daryl (Norman Reedus), Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) - are featured in any of the six stills, but they do provide a glimpse of some newer faces, as well as a few old familiars.

Morgan recently teased the arrival of his character - a beloved villain from the graphic novels the AMC series is based on - saying it "resets the world."

Executive producer and director Greg Nicotero revealed that the season's opening scene has been making crew members emotional.

The first trailer for the new season was released at Comic-Con 2016 last month and it included theHilltop Colony, Tara (Alanna Masterson) in danger and new faction The Kingdom led by King Ezekiel (Khary Payton).

The Walking Dead returns to FOX on 24 October.