Photo released teasing the return of The Walking Dead season 9

Season 9 of The Walking Dead may not return until February, but the show is teasing some powerful moments from the midseason premiere.

The first five episodes from season 9 of The Walking Dead have left viewers stunned and excited for the return of the popular AMC zombie survival drama series. Although there are still nearly two months until the midseason premiere, that doesn’t mean there won’t be teases being released in the meantime.

The way the show left the midseason finale, there is a question as to whether or not some of our favorite survivors will make it out of their fight with The Whisperers alive, but thankfully a new teaser image released by Entertainment Weekly and shared by executive producer Gale Anne Hurd on Twitter shed some light on the situation.

Here is the tweet from Hurd including a link to the photo from Entertainment Weekly as well as the first teaser photo from season 9B:

The image shows the group from the graveyard fight against The Whisperers returning home. The body of Jesus is draped across a horse as Michonne, Magna, Yumiko, Daryl, Eugene, and Aaron make their way back to what we assume will be The Hilltop.

Showrunner Angela Kang discussed what can be expected when season 9 of The Walking Dead returns in the article by Entertainment Weekly:

"“It’s gonna be a direct pickup,” says showrunner Angela Kang about how things start in the midseason premiere. “We’re gonna find out what happens to that group that was in the cemetery as they try to make their harrowing journey back home to bury Jesus.”"

The good news is that is looks and sounds like the rest of the group (other than Jesus, of course) sounds like they will make it out of the graveyard alive. But there is still plenty about The Whisperers that fans will learn over the course of the next eight episodes.

"“We’ll get to know more about this group,” teases Kang of the Whisperers, “and their brutal survival of the fittest philosophy and how that really plays out in horrifying ways.” You mean the zombie skin mask was not horrifying enough?!”"

Don’t miss The Walking Dead when the show returns for the second half of season 9 on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2019 to find out more about the survivors as well as The Whisperers and the communities being pulled apart with hopes of them joining forces once again.