The Walking Dead season 7: New character posters remind us someone we love is about to die

Lucille takes centre stage in the latest batch of character posters

The halfway mark between the brutally frustrating ending of The Walking Dead season six and season seven's 'disturbing' opening has arrived, set to be marked by a brand new trailer at San Diego Comic-Con this Friday (22 July).

In the meantime, AMC has released a set of posters - and instead of being the usual moody shots of our favourite characters with zombies prowling close by, these ones come with a baseball bat addition; namely Lucille, the barbed-wire-wrapped weapon belonging to new villain Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).

Yes, one of these characters will be dead by the time the new season begins. In case you'd forgotten, in the running to be bludgeoned is - take a breath - Daryl (Norman Reedus), Glenn (Steven Yeun), Eugene (Josh McDermitt), Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green), Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Michonne (Danai Gurira), Abraham (Michael Cudlitz), Rosita (Christian Serratos) and Aaron (Ross Marquand).

Feast your eyes on the character posters below.

Despite seeming to be eliminated from the line-up in the finale, it's interesting to see that both Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Carl (Chandler Riggs) get their very own poster. Would the writers really consider killing off the show's main character?

The premiere episode's director Greg Nicotero revealed that those who have seen the opening scene - which is expected to pick up immediately where the ending of season six left off - came away feeling emotional and disturbed.

A new image of Lennie James' Morgan - one of the very few characters who we know is alive and well going into the new season - was released earlier this week.

The Walking Dead returns to FOX this October.