Watch 'The Walking Dead' Season 9 Premiere Opener

The Walking Dead season nine doesn’t officially premiere until Sunday, but AMC is giving fans [...]

The Walking Dead season nine doesn't officially premiere until Sunday, but AMC is giving fans the chance to watch the first five minutes of the new season.

On Sunday, AMC released the first five minutes of the supersized episode titled, "A New Beginning," that boasts a running time of 86 minutes, giving fans their best look yet at the new world that the characters find themselves in.

Picking up 18 months after the events of the season 8 finale, which finally saw Rick and Co. take down Negan and the Saviors, the few remaining survivors in the post-apocalyptic zombie wasteland seem to be leading much quieter and normal lives.

Alexandria, newly rebuilt following the "All Out War," now features fields for farming, solar panels, and windmills, finally returning to the safe zone it was originally promised to be, a place safe enough for Judith to paint pictures of a grumpy daddy with a big tummy on the front porch as Michonne and Rick look on.

Meanwhile, in the Negan-less Sanctuary, Eugene is hard at work and Daryl shoots his first arrow of the season at a walker being used as a scarecrow in the community's cornfield.

Outside of the safety of the communities, however, the world is even grimmer than it had been. Now several years into the apocalypse, nature is beginning to reclaim the world and man-made structures continue to degrade, presenting new obstacles for the band of survivors and once again proving walkers to be the primary threat.

As previous clips have teased, another threat to the communities will be themselves, as the survivors struggle to restore law and order in a world that has been without law for years, leading to conflict and clashes among leaders. Two such leaders are Rick Grimes and Maggie Greene, both of whom are set to exit the AMC series this season, though both have the potential to return.

Despite making the decision to hang up the sheriff's hat after nine seasons in order to return home to England to be with his family, star Andrew Lincoln recently revealed that he would be headed back to Georgia to shadow directors with intentions to direct an episode of his own in season 10. Maggie Greene actress Lauren Cohan's exit from the series will be left open-ended, leaving room for the character to return in future seasons.

The Walking Dead season nine premieres Sunday, Oct. 7 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.

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