'The Walking Dead' Season 8 trailer is all action and a whole lot of of hope

After weathering criticism that Season 7 of The Walking Dead was unrelentingly bleak, Season 8 of AMC's zombie hit looks like a very different animal, at least judging from the first trailer released at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday afternoon.

While Negan is still sauntering around swinging his bat and warning people that they're about to "shit their pants," the tone of the trailer is one of defiance, as Rick Grimes and his allies take the fight to the Saviors, with the Alexandrians joining forces with the residents of Hilltop and the Kingdom to defeat the big bad.

There are some moments in the trailer that hint at a little more levity than previous seasons -- including a somewhat innocent moment of a walker trying to catch a plastic bag caught on a tree -- but much of the footage focuses on Rick and Maggie rallying their troops with motivational speeches... and Daryl blowing shit up.

"It's easy to see and safe to report that it will be very action-packed, very fast-paced," creator Robert Kirkman offered as a preview for the new season. "I think I counted six explosions in the trailer?"

While the cast and producers were typically cagey about spoilers, showrunner Scott Gimple did say that "it's entirely possible" that the series will show us other locations outside of the U.S. at some point. "It’s something that we want to see."

When asked if we'll see any "new, interesting characters" in Season 8, Gimple said, "The answer is yes. But we shan’t tell you about them now."

And when a fan asked Kirkman if the show would ever explore trying to find a cure for the zombie apocalypse, he explained, "I've always thought that one of the best things about the show is that it's not about scientists... it's about people and their struggles to survive, so to go off and try to solve this would be a boring show."

The Walking Dead Season 8 premieres October 22 on AMC.