The Walking Dead Season 7: What We Know So Far 

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is coasting along, possibly past the point where the only thing likely to end it is an actual worldwide apocalypse where the dead rise up and turn humanity into a grungy skeleton of what it once was. But, instead of having the "Which one of your friend group would be Rick?" conversation, we\'re going to look into our barb wire-wrapped crystal ball to look as far as we can into the future, focusing specifically on Season 7 of

, which nabbed its renewal when Season 6 was just three episodes deep. Here\'s everything we know about that upcoming season.

Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn\'t yet watched Season 6 of

or read through the corresponding arc of the comic book series, as a lot of that is covered here.

When Will The Walking Dead Season 7 Premiere?

At the time of this writing, AMC hasn\'t yet given a shout-out over the walkie-talkie to let anybody know when Season 7 will arrive on our televisions. But it doesn\'t take magick in order to divine the answer - or at least a confident estimation - from the universe. For the past four years,

has kicked its seasons off on the second Sunday in October, just in time for AMC\'s Halloween-themed marathons. So if we were in Vegas (or whatever basement casino ends up being opened up in Alexandria or the Hilltop a couple of years down the road), I would put almost all of my money on Sunday, October 9, being the date chosen for Season 7 to begin, while saving just a bit of cash for Sunday, October 16, which is the same date that Season 2 started. Expect an announcement to come this summer.

What Have We Seen From Season 7 So Far?

With the impending premiere still a ways off, AMC has yet to deliver anything from Season 7 to fans, and an increased push to demolish spoilery leaks has put secrecy above all else. But don\'t you worry your walker-filleting heart, because we\'ll have something before you know it. And then before you know that, AMC will have released 1,700 teasers, trailers, clips and motion posters, and it will take all your willpower not to create your own footage using popsicle sticks for characters. What can we use as a tiny eyepatch or bandage for Stick Carl?

When Season 7 is unleashed upon viewers, there are definitely going to be some new survivors coming into contact with Rick and the rest, with some sharing virtuous ideals and some...not so much. The show\'s reliance on covering up new info means specific character identities are still unknown, but we know we\'re getting a lot more out of Jeffrey Dean Morgan\'s Negan, so that counts. (More on him later, though.) But we can definitely make some assumptions based on Robert Kirkman\'s source material and who popped in during the last couple of Season 6 episodes, understanding that some of the show\'s characters may be altered or combinations of those from the comics. As well, casting calls have clued us in on a few new characters.

Aside from the foul-mouthed tyrant Negan, the most important character that we\'ll likely meet is "King" Ezekiel, as seen above and made obvious by his speech bubble. His comic introduction came not too longer after Negan left his initial skull crater, and rumor has it Episode 3 is when viewers will first get to see his home zone, dubbed The Kingdom. That\'s presumably also where those armor-laden guys that Morgan met come from. Without getting too deep into where Ezekiel\'s story goes, we can just say he\'s another man-in-charge, and a very likable one at that. He has a tiger named Shiva, too, which showrunner Scott Gimple was keen on using for the show, and although nothing was confirmed by the show, an animatronic tiger was reportedly seen on set during the early weeks of Season 7 filming.

A recent casting notice shared that a new character named "Jennie" would be introduced in Episode 6, and that she would be a perky teenager who has remained optimistic, despite all of the awfulness surrounding her, but she isn\'t as naive as that description might imply. Also during Episode 6, we\'ll get to meet another older survivor by the name of "Naomi" that has watched just about everyone she knew and loved die, which gives her an unexpected edge and grip on survival. There\'s someone named "Rodgers" coming, too, and he\'ll be a horseback-riding hardass who is determined to keep everyone he knows safe.

It\'s unclear if any of those will correspond to comic characters, but speaking of, there are a couple of Hilltop Colony residents that viewers will hopefully get the privilege to meet soon. One is the local blacksmith -- yes, a blacksmith -- named Earl, who\'s a genial guy that makes weapons and could possibly play a role in Carl\'s future. Karen Ceesay\'s Bertie, who has already made an appearance, is probably a stand-in for the comic character Brianna, who becomes one of Maggie\'s closer friends; but if she isn\'t, then expect that character to pop up. The Saviors also bring out some more noteworthy characters as time goes by, such as Mark, who suffers a facial fate similar to Dwight, and Amber, the girl on the other side of that awfulness. There\'s Carson, another higher-up in the villainous group who has a pretty important function at some point in the future. (Not vague at all.) And there\'s another memorable (and dark) scene in the comics that involves a douche named David, so he might show up.

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