The Walking Dead season 7 episode 9: Synopsis and images released for upcoming batch of episodes

It seems enlisting assistance in the war against Negan won't be as easy as first thought

The remainder of The Walking Dead season 7 is inching ever closer and AMC has released a tantalising first look at what's to come.

Actor Andrew Lincoln previously teased that the next run of episodes features "a lot more levity" than the opening half which dished out traumatic moments aplenty thanks to new antagonist Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).

It reads:  

"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."

The past few seasons has seen the TV series' world expand with the introduction of new factions the Hilltop Colony and the Kingdom; it seems these strands are going to be tied together in the upcoming episodes with Lincoln comparing them to The Magnificent Seven.

Much of season 7's opening half saw Rick reduced to a shell of his former self following the traumatic murder of both Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) and Glenn (Steven Yeun) at the hands of Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan.

The closing moments of the latest episode saw Rick reassemble the fractured group in a bid to overthrow the Saviours.

The Walking Dead returns in the US on February 12 and will air the following evening in the UK, 9 pm on FOX. You can find our definitive ranking of all eight episodes thus far here, as well as a preview of all the shows to look out for in 2017 here.