Yesterday, fans were introduced to two new characters in Season 6 of The Walking Dead, Merritt Wever's Dr. Denise Cloyd and Ethan Embry's Carter. Today, Entertainment Weekly has revealed the cover of this week's new issue, which features The Walking Dead fan favorites Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon) and Melissa Suzanne McBride (Carol Peltier). The cover image also features a clever reference to the delicious cookies Carol baked last season.

Season 5 of the hit AMC series ended in shocking fashion, with Rick killing the wife-beating Pete (Corey Brill), after the unexpected death of Reg (Steve Coulter). Just as that happened, Rick was reunited with his long-lost friend Morgan (Lennie James) and the season came to a close. We already saw in The Walking Dead Season 6 trailer that the new episodes will be rather intense, with several members of the Alexandria community, including Ethan Embry's Carter, trying to run Rick out of town. Norman Reedus reveals that there will even be conflict within Rick's group.

"(There is) a lot of internal conflict. A lot of characters that you didn't see having beef are starting to have beef-there's a lot of mistrust."

While it's clear that there is a faction among Alexandria residents who want Rick and his crew gone, it remains to be seen how long they will be sticking around for. Rick did tease last season that, if the Alexandrians don't cooperate, they'll just simply take over the town themselves, which might not be what some of his followers want. Here's what Andrew Lincoln had to say after reading the script for the premiere episode.

"(It's about) them and us. When I read the first script, I called [showrunner Scott M. Gimple] up and went, 'You know, I say them and they, and us and we a lot.' He said, 'That's your journey, from them to us.'"

The very end of The Walking Dead Season 5 also teased the emergence of a group know as The Wolves, who will be featured throughout this upcoming season. Executive producer Greg Nicotero, who directed the Season 6 premiere episode, teased that this season will mess with "time," so to speak, starting in the first episode. Here's what he had to say about the time-bending premiere.

"We do play with time a little bit. And not in a traditional sense. We open right in the middle of this heightened action sequence, and we then jump around in that time frame to allow the audience to put together in their own minds what it is that we actually just saw."

Lennie James also confirmed that fans will get more insight into his Morgan character, with flashbacks that explain what happened to him since the last time we saw him, in the The Walking Dead Season 3 episode "Clear". In that episode, Morgan was rather unhinged, setting up crude traps for walkers and stockpiling weapons. Morgan is much more level-headed now, with the actor teasing that "he has gone through a transformation that viewers will find out about." Scott M. Gimple said there will also be flashbacks that show what happened in Alexandria before Rick and his group of survivors arrived.

"It's earlier in Alexandria, but not the beginning of Alexandria. It's more character-based rather than the background of the place. There are some stories filled in regards to the comic that we haven't even gotten to yet-sort of prequeling some comic stories that are coming up, which I'm very excited about."

In addition to the EW cover, we also have two more photos featuring Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus and Melissa Suzanne McBride. We reported last month that the zombie TV series will also introduce two new characters, a married couple named Kirk and Hilda, but these roles have not been cast at this time. We still have a long ways to go before the Season 6 premiere debuts on Sunday, October 11, so stay tuned for more casting and plot details. In the meantime, check out the EW cover and photos.

The Walking Dead EW Cover
The Walking Dead EW Photo 1
The Walking Dead EW Photo 2