The Walking Dead mid-season trailer showcases Negan's takeover and zombie-heavy action

AMC have released a trailer for the upcoming mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead, ahead of it returning to screens in just a few months. And judging by the 30 seconds they offered up, the second-half of the sixth season looks to be filled with drama, from Negan's bubbling takeover to Rick's infamous hatchet scene, which fans will know from the comics.

The teasingly-short trailer begins with a voice-over from main character Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), solemnly saying: "I thought, living behind these walls was possible. I was wrong," which strongly hints the remainder of season six will be intense.

Last time we left off, Rick, Carol, Morgan and the group were still struggling to adjust to life in Alexandria and things took a turn for the worse when their questionable sanctuary was overrun by walkers after one of the watchtowers collapsed onto the wall surrounding the town. Deanna, the town's figurehead, ended up being bitten, but Glenn - who was presumed dead - reappeared alive in Alexandria. Towards the end of the episode Rick, Carl, Jessie, Sam and Michonne were trapped inside a horde-filled house. They came up with the solution to cover themselves in zombie guts in order to mask their scent and pass through the walkers undetected and it's safe to say, the story can go anywhere from there.

Another intriguing line uttered in the trailer, is "your property now belongs to Negan," a character we've heard a lot about recently, who is set to make his debut in the sixth season's second-half. Whilst fans may not have seen the character of Negan appear in the television series yet, many have heard about him due to his involvement in the graphic novels on which the show is loosely based. It is widely known that he's a foul-mouthed and violent villain in the plot and certainly won't be a friend to the existing characters.

Introduced in the comics in The Walking Dead #100, he is known as the leader of a group called The Saviours. He is part of one of the most memorable moments of the TWD comics in which he brutally kills Glenn with his barbed wire-covered baseball bat. The show doesn't tend to follow the comics exactly, so whether or not that pivotal storyline will feature remains unclear.

Similarly, many other fans online have noticed that the trailer shows a glimpse of what looks like it could be another famous scene from the comics that sees Rick chop off new love interest Jessie's (Alexandra Breckenridge) hand with a hatchet to save his son Carl from being dragged by her into a horde of walkers. Considering that the first-half saw all three of those characters amidst a ton of zombies, could this storyline play out in the show too?

The Walking Dead's sixth season will continue on AMC from 14 February 2016. What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with, what is bound to be a pretty gruesome episode of your favourite zombie series, eh? If you want to catch up on the series before it returns then check out our review recaps here.

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