A lot of time has passed between "The Walking Dead" Season 8 and the upcoming Season 9. AMC just shared a bunch of new photos from the Season 9 premiere showing off the time jump changes.

One of those changes is the romance between Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) and King of the Kingdom Ezekiel (Khary Payton). They had a connection in Season 8, and were definitely close, but now it's clear they are a couple. If they had Instagram, they'd be Instagram official. (Sorry, Team Caryl. You could still be end game.)

Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Maggie Greene Rhee (Lauren Cohan) -- who are both said to be leaving this season -- show off their new looks in these photos. Rick now has shorter, grayer hair, and Maggie has longer hair. Based on a photo of Jeffrey Dean Morgan (not shown in these pics), Negan will probably have a shorter 'do too.

Here are some new Season 9, Episode 1 photos -- in addition to the shot of Carol and Ezekiel at top:

Season 9 has a new (fourth) showrunner in longtime writer Angela Kang. A while back she talked to EW about the time jump and the new Western vibe:

"We’ll explore what happened as man made objects and structures break down. Infrastructure like roads and bridges are changing and crumbling. And we’ll also explore what happens as resources are getting low. There’s a fun Western vibe that has emerged. We are going into a period where a lot of the things that we’ve seen in previous seasons have broken down, so they’ve got these horses and carriages that are being drawn around instead of cars. Things are lit with oil lamps. People are using different kinds of weaponry. There’s a real grittiness to it that I think will be fun and fresh for the viewers."

"The Walking Dead" Seaosn 9 premieres Sunday, October 7 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.

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