"The Walking Dead" season 7 won't return until next month, but fans are already riled up — thanks in large part to Andrew Lincoln, who plays Rick Grimes on the series.

It can be recalled that the first half of the seventh season saw Rick's spirit crushed as a result of Negan's arrival. Jeffrey Dean Morgan's big bad has killed several of Rick's comrades, starting with the season 7 opener's bloody murders of Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz). What followed was a defeated Rick, an imprisoned Daryl (Norman Reedus), and a group of lost Alexandrian survivors.

However, the midseason finale saw a change in Rick's eye, especially after Daryl's escape. Additional bodies went into the pile of Negan's kills, and that was the last straw for Rick. And while speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Lincoln teased what the back half of the seventh season has in store for viewers.

"It's probably the opposite of what you just witnessed," he said. "Certainly from Rick's point of view. You see a man in action again with some of the members of his closest family."

Fans got a glimpse of this newly reformed Rick in the winter finale of "The Walking Dead" season 7. And when the series returns, fans are going to see Rick and his crew try to rally up forces to go against Negan and his band of Saviors. An exclusive photo obtained by TVLine even teased the group's efforts to get Hilltop leader Gregory (Xander Berkeley) on their side.

Lincoln went on to describe his character as havng "sort of a freedom in him" that stems from everything he went through. "It's the thrill of the fight again. He's back in. All I'm saying is that the band is back together," he continued.

And as if that weren't enough to get fans going, Lincoln teased a particularly thrilling scene coming in episode 16.

"I promise you, there is one beat in 16, I dropped my script and started punching the air and did a little jig," he said.

"The Walking Dead" season 7 resumes on Feb. 12 on AMC.