‘The Walking Dead’ Season 9: Rick Grimes Gets His Sheriff’s Hat Back

Rick Grimes may be leaving The Walking Dead in season nine, but not before one iconic hat sits atop his head a final time.

Season nine of The Walking Dead is proving to be a game changer for the popular AMC zombie drama, and a new teaser for the upcoming season is promising that before Andrew Lincoln officially makes his exit, fans may see him wear the Sheriff’s hat one final time.

As fans of the series will remember, the hat was first worn by Rick Grimes during his pre-apocalypse days as a deputy for the King County Sheriff’s Department, and it was an item that he continued to wear in the post-apocalyptic Georgian landscape as he fought his way back to his family.

In season two, Rick passed the hat down to his son, Carl, after he was shot and managed to survive with the help of Hershel Greene, telling Carl after he pointed out that they have both been shot “Since you’re in the club now, you get to wear the hat.”

Carl’s time with the hat came to an abrupt end in season eight after he was bitten by a walker while helping a fellow survivor, though during his final moments alive, he passed the hat on to Judith, telling her that wearing the hat “always kept dad with me, it made me feel as strong as him.”

How and when and even if the sheriff’s hat makes its way back to Rick Grimes’ head remains to be seen, though it will have to happen during the first-half of the season, as Andrew Lincoln is set to make his exit from the series sometime within the first eight episodes.

Lincoln, alongside Maggie Greene’s Lauren Cohan, will be making their exits amid a tense season for the remaining lot of survivors. According to an official summary of the upcoming season, as noted by Comicbook.com, teases an 8-month time jump after the finale and an entirely new world as the characters attempt to rebuild following the war with the Saviors.

“As time passes, the communities confront unexpected obstacles, danger, and of course, walkers, but nothing quite prepares them for the formidable force they are about to encounter, which threatens the very idea of civilization that our survivors have worked so hard to build,” the synopsis reads.

The Walking Dead season nine premieres Sunday, Oct. 7 on AMC. Fans can get their zombie fill with new episodes of sister series Fear The Walking Dead, which airs Sundays on AMC at 9 p.m. ET.