As the ITV soap crossover nears, a villain will return to the Dales

Emmerdale’s Danny Miller appeared on Lorraine as he teased John Sugden’s “monumental” return in ITV’s highly anticipated crossover.

In just a few weeks’ time, viewers of both Emmerdale and Coronation Street will be able to sit and watch the epic hour-long crossover, where the soaps will collide for one night only. Corriedale has long been anticipated by fans, and as ITV continue to tease cast members and explosive trailers, theories are circulating across the communities.

While ITV have remained tight-lipped about what to expect, they have officially confirmed the list of cast members we can expect to see on our screens on January 5 2026 at 8pm. One of the cast members is John Sugden, who was last seen in September before he fled from the Dales with the reluctant help of Caleb Miligan.

Viewers will recall that John arrived in the village as the secret half-brother of Victoria and Robert Sugden. He soon swept Aaron Dingle off his feet, and after a whirlwind romance, the couple soon decided to get married.

Not much was known about the former army medic, but things soon unravelled for him. It was eventually revealed that he had accidentally killed Nate Robinson, as he had a hero complex that saw him put lives in danger just so he could save them.

Robert’s return was the start of John’s spiralling as he desperately attempted to control the situation and keep Aaron all to himself. Things escalated once more when Mackenzie Boyd was held captive by John in an underground war bunker after learning the truth about Nate.

As John confessed everything to Aaron, Robert Sugden turned up at the scene where John then called the police to frame Robert and threw himself and Aaron over the edge of a cliff. Aaron’s life was on the line for a while until he woke up and told his loved ones everything.

Viewers are now trying to figure out what his return could mean for Robert and Aaron, and on Wednesday (December 24), actors Ryan Hawley and Danny Miller appeared on Lorraine to tease the crossover.

When asked about John’s return, Ryan said: “We can neither confirm or deny if John will be back, we were told, but yeah he’s back”, as Danny quipped: “Yeah he’s back, somebody included him in the cast list so that was great confidentiality.”

He added: “We don’t know when he’s gonna come back, but he’s part of the Corriedale episode which I think is amazing for us at the group storyline, but for Ollie (Farnworth) to be part of such a monumental, historical piece of television. To be a part of that is amazing for him.”

Ryan reflected on their recent storylines and continued: “It certainly gives us a range for the two of us to kind of be happy one day and then the next group we get, we’re down in the dumps again. We’re always tested I think, we’re constantly being pulled apart and then working our way back together.

“There’s loads of exciting storylines and exciting obstacles to overcome. We’ve had two very deranged partners each that have kind of come with their own trials and tribulations for each character, and they’ve helped each other through. There’s been lies, there’s been deceit, we’ve got everything going on.”

Meanwhile, in an extra treat for the viewers, the producers of both programmes are inviting the audience to choose which two characters, one from each soap, they would like to see meet and interact in a scene.

While the poll won’t open until next year, the four different options viewers will get to choose from were filmed last month and will feature either Emmerdale’s Emma Atkins (Charity Dingle) and Corrie’s Alison King (Carla Connor), Emmerdale’s James Hooton (Sam Dingle) and Corrie’s Andy, Emmerdale’s Nicola Wheeler (Nicola King) and Corrie’s David Neilson (Roy Cropper), or Emmerdale’s Mike Parr (Ross Barton) and Kate Ford, aka Corrie’s Tracy Barlow.