Is The Walking Dead returning with a whole new breed of zombies?

In the official teaser for The Walking Dead season 7B, there looks like there might be something else to worry about apart from that approaching war with Negan and the Saviours. The teaser below begins with Rick literally rising up, then shows us flashes of Carol, Morgan, Tara, Carl and more. It’s sure to be filled with reunions and all the gang getting ready for battle. It’s safe to say things are about to get epic.

But noticeably absent from all this is the presence of Negan, the man who has so controversially mixed things up in the first half of the season. Perhaps AMC want to hide the man who has turned the world of The Walking Dead upside down. Perhaps they want to win back some viewers who have stopped watching the show since Negan battered his way into Rick and co’s lives.

Or perhaps Negan is not the biggest worry for the gang as they look ahead to the future. In one of the very last shots of the teaser, there is a walker with a very distinct, very impressive look about it. This walker is typically decaying and ready to munch on anyone in its path, but this walker is also covered in spikes. Not something you see every day. The spikes protrude from all over its torso and what is more, this bad boy has a metal helmet covered in spikes also.

This isn’t the kind of outfit a walker would produce for itself. Somebody has weaponised a walker with this dangerous looking suit of spiky armour and they have paid special attention to ensuring that the head of the walker is covered so as to make it much tougher to kill. No prizes for guessing who might have done this.

But is it Negan and the Saviours? Or is this one of Rick’s gang that has come up with this weapon of war? There is a precedent for using walkers against other humans in the comics, but nothing quite like this. We know the Saviours have walkers on spikes outside their lair, but this could be an evolution of that tactic as they move towards a fight for their survival.

The only other option is that these are something else entirely. If you don’t want to know anything about what occurs later in the comics, then this is your chance to say goodbye to this article. POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD.

The final theory is that this is a Whisperer. In the comics, The Whisperers are a relatively new group who wear the skin of walkers all over their bodies to blend in with herds of the real undead. They aren’t covered in spikes, but who is to say that the TV show isn’t going to take their design up a notch?

Here’s the teaser:

Is this a weaponised walker or something else? Let us know what you think in the comments.