EastEnders boss confirms wedding and more Max Branning 2027 flashforward details – and how 2026 episodes will handle these scenes

Let's face it – whenever a soap announces a flashforward episode, we all tremble in fear at what could happen in real life that could rock the boat during the interim.

It's also a trouble to keep viewers invested in the stories and characters. There has to be a plentiful amount of questions posed to keep folk watching until the endpoint, and enough strands to satisfy curious minds.

Fortunately, EastEnders executive producer Ben Wadey is confident that the BBC soap's upcoming lookahead to 2027 will go down without a hitch.

Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other media at a recent festive press event, he explained: "I think something like this comes with its challenges and its risks, but I'm confident we've got a really good team."

He continued: "We've got an amazing cast working on this, and knowing the plans as I do, and knowing how we've set stuff up in a way that gives us, you know, the latitude to tell the story the way we want to. I'm feeling good about it."

This also meant some practical assurances needed to be achieved for the year ahead...

Wadey added: "You have to speak to the actors early doors and say, 'We're gonna have to lock in your look for a year. Are you comfortable with that?', but the big challenges come from a storytelling perspective.

"The team and I will sit and have those massive tent poles over the year, to know where we're going."

Wadey teased that every single character that we see throughout the instalment will have "a really big story" throughout the next 12 months, though so far only Max Branning (Jake Wood), Lauren Beale (Jacqueline Jossa), Oscar Branning (Pierre Counihan-Moullier), Jack Branning (Scott Maslen), and Walford stalwart Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) are confirmed to be part of the line-up.

A recent trailer even revealed Max blaming Lauren for turning him over to the police, while Jack warned that Max's life is one big game of "Kiss, Marry, Kill" - which Wadey himself has teased as central to this story.

"Even those who are in just one or two scenes have had something massive happen to them. Getting the tone of every single one of those scenes right, making sure the details are correct – even what's in the background of shots – we've had to be really, really careful, because we know where things are going," he revealed.

"We know what's changing," continued Wadey. "We know how relationships are going to be slightly upset or upended. So [we've been] keeping an eye on all of that, and making sure that those details, as well as the big tent poles, are properly locked down has been a real challenge.

"The other thing I'd say is to take notice of the stuff that's not in that episode and the gaps in between, because there's probably a few clues there."

The episode was announced alongside a picture of Max wearing a suit with a bloodstained buttonhole, though with few details beyond this.

Wadey has now confirmed that it will indeed centre around the Branning womaniser's wedding day to a mystery bride, with a few other surprises too.

"I wanted to see what Max's return could look like in terms of his relationship with his kids. Did he want to change? And could he change? Could he be a better dad? Is he always going to be the womaniser that he was before, or is he redeemed?" he added.

"We felt that the best way and the most exciting way to tell that story is to set up whether he'll be able to hold that up over the year.

"There's chaos that ensues with everything that he's got up to... him getting married, there's a woman in the bed next to him who is clearly pregnant when he wakes up... there is a whole heap of chaos."

He continued: "We set up a gazillion questions in that episode. But you don't have to wait an entire year to get all the answers. You'll be getting answers from almost the episode after, and then through every month, you'll be we'll be giving you little bits.

"We twist it a lot in that episode; things are not as they seem. Things that you will assume are going on there when you watch them in a year's time will actually have quite a different light on them.

"But there'll be lots of things within that episode that you know, even within the first few weeks and months, quite big answers you will start to get as an audience, which I find, I hope, will be really satisfying."

But who is Max's bride? And who is the pregnant woman? Is it his child?

So many questions... and this is just the beginning.

The EastEnders flashforward episode airs on New Year's Day at 7.30pm.

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