The Walking Dead: Dead City teaser shows the bloody return of Lucille

There will be some new life breathed into season 2 of The Walking Dead: Dead City, it was revealed today during the series’ panel at Comic-Con in San Diego. Four actors will be joining the spinoff, which will return in 2025 on AMC and AMC+. A new teaser was also released, showing Lauren Cohan’s Maggie and Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan back in action.

Keir Gilchrist of Atypical will be starring on season 2 in the role of Benjamin Pierce. He will be joined by Dascha Polanco (Orange is the New Black) as Major Lucia Narvaez, Jack Weary (Animal Kingdom) as Christos, and Pooya Mohseni as Roksana. They are all in addition to Sons of Anarchy’s Kim Coates, who was previously reported to be playing New York gang leader Bruegel.

And although the news has already been floating around, it was also officially announced that Cohan, who serves as an executive producer on the series, would be directing an episode for the first time. She joins a growing list of Walking Dead actors who have also directed for the franchise — including Michael Cudlitz, Lennie James, Colman Domingo, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Aisha Tyler, and Danay García — although Cohan made it very clear to Entertainment Weekly that she was not responsible for costar Morgan accidentally eating 20 real cockroaches during a scene.

“It is the most humbling experience I have ever had in my life,” Cohan said from the panel stage. “It was so incredible, It started with Eli’s writing and the support of Jeffrey… I’m not crying on the stage but I’m telling you that I am inside.”

But perhaps most intriguing of all was the season 2 teaser that kicked off the panel, and can be watched below. “The world was rigged,” says the voice of the Dama (Lisa Emery), introduced in the season 1 finale. “Designed to rip us apart. That was the world of the Dead.”

And then… a very familiar whistle, the audible calling card of Negan — followed by a shot of him donning the leather jacket and dragging Lucille across the floor. We also see Negan tossing his bat and, finally, Negan and Maggie meeting up again face to face. Whether they are meeting as uneasy friends or hardcore foes remains to be seen.

Who knows? After all, when panel moderator Chris Hardwick asked showrunner Eli Jorné if there would be a tonal shift in season 2, Jorné responded without missing a beat, “It’s a romantic comedy now.” (We think he’s kidding.)

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

As for the evolution of Negan, Morgan went back through the character’s history. “What I find so interesting about Negan is when I originally stepped into that leather jacket, for a couple of years it was very much the Negan that walked out of the Winnebago,” said the actor. “And then a couple of years later we started seeing some changes, and I think that’s the joy for an actor, is playing something that is changing and moving.… He has to grow. he has no choice. And some of it has to do with waking up.”

Morgan credits The Walking Dead episode “Here’s Negan” with making him think about what he wanted to do with the character, before some chuckles from the stage caused Morgan to reverse course. “Okay, Negan is still an a--hole and he’s got his bat back. Let’s go!”

After fans roared their approval, Morgan continued. “A lot of this season is bringing the old Negan back, and that includes Lucille. I was really excited to. There is something about that sweet girl — and she is a sweet girl — that I love. It almost makes me turn into Negan, holding that sweet girl. And you’ll see this season he has a love/hate relationship with her.”