EastEnders flashes forward to New Year’s Eve 2026 showing Max Branning getting married, but even the cast don’t know who the bride will be
New Year’s Eve in Walford is always more explosive than a firework display, but this year is set to bring a fresh set of mysteries to its celebrations, as EastEnders jumps a year into the future.
During the Christmas specials, viewers watched as Chrissie Watts (Tracy Ann-Oberman) revealed she’d been the one tormenting Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan). But now the countdown to New Year’s Eve is on, and it’s all about the Brannings.
In the upcoming episode, the show will flash forward a year in time to New Year’s Eve 2026. As Walford prepares to ring in 2027, Max Branning (Jake Wood) is getting married. But to whom? What does his daughter Lauren (Jacqueline Jossa) think? And what has his year been like up until then?
Ahead of the New Year’s episode, Mirror hears from Jake and Jacqueline. “I think Max is probably at an all-time low on New Year’s Eve,” Jake says. It’s not hard to imagine – in the lead up to Christmas, Max discovered he had a secret daughter that Lauren had lied to him about. “And then we go into the flash forward and it’s in such stark contrast. So see a man who’s maybe at his lowest we’ve ever seen him and then we flash forward and things are maybe not quite as bad.”
He added that he was really excited about new love interests who will be introduced for his character and shared that even he didn’t know who his character would marry in 2027.
Fans have already started speculating about it, especially as a drunken Max slept with Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) over Christmas. Some wonder if Cindy, who didn’t realise it was Max, will be the bride – despite the fact that she blames Max for her son Stephen’s death.
Jake’s onscreen daughter Jacqueline Jossa also said she had “so many questions” and that none of the cast know who Max is set to marry. “I haven’t got a clue so we’ll find out next year probably with all of you lot.”
She revealed that though she got a full script for the New Year’s episode, it had so many gaps, she still didn’t know what would happen in 2026. “Obviously we’ll get the answers as we go which means every time I get a script now, I’m looking for the answer.” But this wasn’t easy: “There’s so many questions and no answers.”
Over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, viewers watched as Jasmine (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness) met up with Chrissie Watts (Tracy-Ann Oberman), revealing that the evil murderer was the true mastermind tormenting Zoe ( Michelle Ryan ). Why did the two team up? Jasmine felt abandoned by the mother who walked out on her and her brother when she was an infant, and Chrissie felt Zoe hadn’t paid for her part in Den Watts’ (Leslie Grantham) murder 20 years ago.
Since she returned, Zoe, who believed her daughter had died, has been looking for her son – something Jasmine has resented. But some fans think all Zoe will find is a grave. Writing on Reddit, one fan said, “I said it on another thread, but I think the boy twin is dead.
“I think he’ll have needed a transplant of some sort, and Jasmine wasn’t a match – but Zoe could have been. But because she abandoned the babies at the hospital and they had no record of her, no one was able to find her, and the twin died. Hence why Jasmine is angry as f***.”
Fans replied to the post, agreeing it was an “interesting theory”. If true, it could explain why Zoe’s private investigator never managed to find any further details about her son and his current whereabouts.
Jasmine hasn’t yet offered any new information about her brother or her life before arriving in Walford a few months ago. Nor has she revealed why she has been so obsessed with Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins).
Now, the New Year will focus on Max Branning and the flash forward episode.
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