‘The Walking Dead’ Season 3 Spoilers: Official Poster Highlights The New ‘Ricktatorship’ [PHOTO]

By Amanda Remling | September 06 2012 8:17 AM

Get ready for "The Walking Dead" to return with a bang! AMC has finally released the official poster for season three of their hit series, and we've got the picture!

Unlike the Nielsen ratings, there is no single comprehensive way to track which BitTorrent files are most searched for and downloaded. Even so, data assembled by TorrentFreak found that the most-sought television show was AMC's “The Walking Dead.”

The season three poster for "The Walking Dead" follows the same formula as the promotional posters for the first two seasons. Season one showed the back of Rick (Andrew Lincoln) as he walked towards Atlanta, while season two displayed Rick running towards Hershel's farm in the distance. However, the season three poster finally gives fans a look of Rick head on.

Still in his sheriff's uniform (although that uniform has seen better days), Rick stands on top of an overturned bus with a gun in his hand. Behind him viewers can see the prison, the highly anticipated season three setting which has been called a character itself by show runner Glenn Mazzara.

"Fight the dead," reads the poster. "Fear the living.

The new poster visually and verbally teases the upcoming struggles for Rick's group of survivors.

At the end of season three, "The Walking Dead" fans witnessed key members of the group die. Most met their death at the hands of walkers, while Shane was unfortunate enough to force Rick to pull the trigger on him.

After barely escaping Hershel's farm when it became overrun with zombies, the group must now face the challenge of regrouping amidst some major losses, and finding a way to trust Rick again, who failed to inform them that they are all already carrying the walker virus.

"[The zombies] are always a horror but as our folks learn to live with them, the new horror becomes what people will do to survive and to protect each other in this world," Mazzara teased on "The Walking Dead" website, and confirming the poster phrase "Fight the dead. Fear the living."

This season the living to fear will be those at the town of Woodbury under the leadership of The Governor. Another member of the living to fear will be Merle Dixon, Daryl's brother, who Rick and T-Bone left handcuffed on a roof of a department store in season one. When they returned to rescue Merle, the only thing left of him was his severed hand.

"The Walking Dead" returns to AMC on Sunday, Oct. 14.