The Walking Dead stella, star Andrew lincoln on an 'astonishing' season 6 

It would be easy for the biggest show in cable TV history to coast on its accomplishments and deliver some predictable fare for season 6, but as outlined in our current cover story on

, the AMC hit appears to be headed into some bold territory. Count star Andrew Lincoln among those who are jazzed about what’s on the horizon.

Lincoln sat down with us at his recent EW cover shoot to talk about the upcoming season (which returns Oct. 11). What words would he use to describe it? “Big,” says Lincoln. “Very big. Ambitious. Brave.”

Those are cool words, but what do they mean? Lincoln elaborated…somewhat. He also took time to praise the vision of showrunner Scott. M. Gimple. “There are more walkers than we’ve ever faced before. I think the storytelling is astonishing. Scott has kind of picked up very much where we left off and he’s spinning 18 principal storylines in an incredibly complicated and cool way.”

Season premiere director Greg Nictotero revealed to EW that the first episode will begin in the middle of a big action sequence and then force viewers to put together the puzzle pieces as it jumps around in time a bit, and Lincoln insists that viewers will be surprised. “I think that episode 1 is something that people are not going to expect,” says the star. “I certainly didn’t when I read it. And when we filmed it, it just grew and grew and it got deeper and deeper. And I think there are a couple of episodes this season that are certainly some of the best episodes I’ve read, maybe in a couple of seasons.”

Watch Lincoln wax eloquent about season 6 in the video above, and make sure to check out the new

 EW issue while you’re at it. Plus, for an absurd amount of

•This Week’s Cover: First look at season 6 of

’s Norman Reedus and Andrew Lincoln get cheeky

showrunner talks possibility of seeing comic villain Negan in season 6

Shudder chief says horror movie-streaming service is \'all killer, no filler\'

Tig Notaro strips down in \'Boyish Girl Interrupted\' clip

Jared Padalecki & Stephen Amell get shirtless in the name of charity

Simon Kinberg defends \'Fantastic 4\': \'It’s not a disaster\'

\'The Mindy Project\'s Ike Barinholtz is coming out with a book

\'The Walking Dead\' Season 6: 12 EW exclusive photos

10 must-have items from the \'Mad Men\' auction: Exclusive

Stars go back to work! \'Scandal,\' \'Arrow,\' \'The Good Wife,\' more return to set

Charlie Hunnam and Excalibur glisten in \'King Arthur\' first look photos

Sam Smith, Channing Tatum, Gwyneth Paltrow and More!