AMC revealed a lot of new photos for "The Walking Dead" on Wednesday, but there was one image in particular that made us do a double take.
Among a group of new character portraits and a poster featuring Rick Grimes, a new logo for the series' ninth season was introduced.
It immediately stood out because, unlike previous iterations of the show's logo, this one is covered in greenery. Here's a look at logos released by AMC for each of the show's nine seasons.
It's also a stark difference from the wear and tear of the decaying logo viewers see during the show's opening credits each season.
As seen above, the show logo for each season usually differs from the one seen in the opening credits. But that's not the case this year. AMC confirmed to INSIDER this is also the logo viewers will see on screen during the show's opening credits.
New showrunner Angela Kang explained the reason behind the change to INSIDER in a statement.
"In previous seasons, the logo in the main titles was gradually decaying along with the world and the zombies in the show," Kang said. "The solid stone letters overgrown with greenery in the season 9 logo reflects the fact that we're jumping into a new chapter of the story where our characters are rebuilding and nature is thriving — for better and worse."
So while the plant life signifies the sort of change Carl wanted to see in the world after his death, it's also indicative of nature taking over.
A new season nine synopsis released by AMC mentions that as Rick's extended group of survivors continues to rebuild civilization, many of the structures around them are continuing to crumble as "nature takes over."
"The Walking Dead" returns to AMC Sunday, October 7 at 9 p.m.
Watch the season nine opening credits below:
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