First teaser image for Walking Dead season 9 unveiled

Audiences are still reeling from the events of season 8 of The Walking Dead but AMC is already hard at work with season 9.

Shooting for next season officially began earlier this week and the first production image has been released.

On a surface level, there doesn’t appear to be much to the image.  Apart from the clapper being used to document the season’s first day of filming, the picture is out of focus.

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However, despite the blurry background, a water tower can clearly be seen.  The tower shows a substantial improvement in living conditions since the end of season 8 and also a time jump of at least a few months.

A time jump between seasons isn’t unprecedented for The Walking Dead as the same thing was done back in season 3 and 4.  What makes this theoretical time jump significant is that it indicates the show’s intention to closely follow events of the comics.

In the comics, once the dust settled with the war against the Saviors, the story jumps forward two years.  In those two years, the citizens of the AHK alliance live relatively conflict-free and civilization has been more or less rebuilt.

Of course, the assumption of time jump might be a little premature (or at least the two-year conflict free one) given how season 8 ended.

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With Maggie, Daryl, and Jesus actively plotting against Rick over Negan, it feels rather far-fetched that those two years would pass without incident.

Do you think the image indicates the time jump from the comics?  Give us your thoughts in the comment section.