Did a Walking Dead Star Just Spoil the Season 8 Premiere?

It’s only been a few weeks since Season 7 of AMC‘s zombocalyptic drama The Walking Dead came to a close, but that hasn’t stopped fans from speculating. After all, we need something to do to pass the time until Season 8 — and watching Fear the Walking Dead doesn’t count.

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So when a member of The Walking Dead cast posted and then deleted a set pic this week that seemed particularly spoiler-y, the fandom quickly latched onto the news.

The pic, which has been preserved for all posterity in a screen grab, shows Kingdom’s Daniel Newman (the official spoiler spiller), Hilltop’s Jeremy Palko and the man, the myth, the legend himself, Andrew Lincoln. Check it out here.

What’s the big deal, right?

Well, my friends, the big deal is that the trio was positioned in front of what clearly appears to be The Sanctuary… aka the compound where Negan and his gnarly Saviors reside. Since Newman is sporting his full-Knight “armor,” it seems safe to assume his character is prepared for a fight.

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Even more telling is the fact that Rick Grimes, played by Lincoln, hasn’t actually been to The Sanctuary on the show yet that we’ve seen — until this juicy little teaser, that is.

Using our brilliant powers of deduction based on the fact that Season 8 filming just started, we can surmise that Rick and the other colonies take the battle to Negan either during the Season 8 premiere or early in the season.

Having said all of that, was Newman’s pic really a spoiler? Yes and no. Since the show does occasionally stray from the graphic comic series, we couldn’t be 100 percent sure Rick’s arc with Negan would take him to The Sanctuary, as it does in the graphic comics.

In that sense, sure, we can call this a spoiler. But the fandom has pretty much known all along this day would come, and fans who follow the graphic comic series closely have practically predicted its arrival down to the exact episode.

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Still, it sure is nice to see Lincoln’s smiling face and know that the battle we’ve all been waiting for is just around the bend. Hurry up, October!