'The Walking Dead' season 8 renewal news: AMC hands out early season renewal to zombie series

AMC has renewed "The Walking Dead" for an eighth run a week ahead of its eagerly awaited season 7 premiere.

The pick-up order was announced on Sunday, Oct. 16, at the beginning of "The Walking Dead: The Journey So Far," a two-hour retrospective on the zombie apocalypse series that caught up viewers on the show's various storylines. "Talking Dead," the live aftershow, has also been renewed. Current showrunner Scott Gimple is still on board for season 8.

"Eeny, meeny, miny, more," AMC president Charlie Collier said in a statement about the show's renewal. "What a joy to partner with Robert Kirkman, Scott Gimple and some of the hardest-working people in television to bring 'The Walking Dead' to the fans. And, most important, thanks to those fans for breathing life into this remarkable series right along with us," he added.

Season 8 is said to premiere in late 2017 and will kick off with the show's landmark 100th episode.

Before that, "The Walking Dead" will air its most anticipated episode yet — the season 7 premiere — which will reveal the identity of the character Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) was on the verge of beating to a pulp in the season 6 finale.

Though it was Glenn (Steven Yeun) who died in this scene in the "Walking Dead" comics, the show's cast and crew have previously confirmed that the series will not necessarily follow the comic book storyline. Currently, at least one of 10 core characters could be killed off in the season 7 premiere.

Norman Reedus, who plays the fan favorite Daryl Dixon on "The Walking Dead," recently appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" and dropped what may be a hint about the season 7 premiere.

"I imagine a lot of people will be kicking their television sets," Reedus predicted.

Fallon took the comment as a hint on who gets offed by Negan in the premiere. While it sounds like fans will be devastated by the reveal, the comment only mirrors dozens of other spoiler-free comments the show's cast members have made about season 7 over the past year.

So far, the only things fans know about the season 7 premiere are that (1) Rick (Andrew Lincoln) is not the victim and (2) the victim appears to be someone on Rick's right in the scene.

"The Walking Dead" season 7 debuts Sunday, Oct. 23, at 9 p.m. EDT on AMC. It will be followed by an expanded 90-minute "Talking Dead" episode broadcast live from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery with all 11 "TWD" series regulars.