EastEnders boss Ben Wadey has revealed that fans will be left with “a gazillion questions” after tuning into a special flashforward episode focusing on Max Branning.

Slated to air on New Year’s Day, the 30-minute instalment will give fans a unique preview of what’s ahead, including Max’s future wedding to a mysterious woman.

Speaking at a festive screening event, Wadey said: “The joy for me of this story and where the team has done such a brilliant job, is 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 we’ll be giving you little bits. But also, we twist it – with a lot in that episode, things are not as they seem.

“So 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,” the executive producer continued.

“But there’ll be lots of things within that episode that even within the first few weeks and months, quite big answers you will start to get as an audience, which I hope will be really satisfying, that it comes throughout the year.”

Jake Wood, who joined EastEnders as Max Branning in 2006, added: “We know where we’re going, we know what the big stories are. But in that episode, every character that you see has a really big story next year, and even those who are in just one scene or one or two scenes have had something massive happen to them.

“The other thing I’d say is, take notice of the stuff that’s not in that episode, because there’s probably a few clues in the gaps in between as well.”

It was back in November that Wadey first announced the flashforward episode. “For the first time in the show’s history, we’re going to be offering our viewers an entire flashforward episode set on New Year’s Day 2027,” he confirmed in a statement.

“2026 is going to be full of drama in Walford, especially for the Brannings, and the episode is sure to raise plenty of questions on how Max has got himself and his family into such predicaments, but all is not what it seems, so stay tuned for 2026 to find out how and why…”

More recently, Wadey noted: “Going into New Year, Max promises that he is a reformed character, but is he going to be able to hold that up over the year? Flash forward a year, and [we see] the chaos that ensues and everything that he’s got up to – with him getting married, and there’s a woman in the bed next to him, who was clearly pregnant when he wakes up. So there is a whole heap of chaos.”