The Walking Dead won’t necessarily need Season 9 teases until spring 2018, so there’s no reason to believe Alpha announcements are incoming.
Season 8 will premiere on October 22, so The Walking Dead has one long “All Out War” to get through in the meantime.
You’re warned of light spoilers from here on out, but The Walking Dead doesn’t have a strong track record of armed conflicts with any one big bad lasting more than a few episodes.
Perhaps not, as showrunners hint that Season 8 will resolve the conflict, and potentially move on to a new, soft-spoken big bad.