Viewers are hoping Liv Flaherty will make a reappearance in the ITV soap

Emmerdale fans predict that a villager could “return” from the dead in scenes with Robert Sugden as his special episode airs.

Actor Ryan Hawley reprised his Emmerdale role as Robert Sugden earlier this year after six years away from the ITV soap.

He was sentenced in 2019 for the death of Lee Posner, and soon decided it would be best to cut off all contact with sister Victoria Sugden and ex-husband Aaron Dingle.

Robert returned as Aaron was set to marry his half-brother John Sugden, and although he didn’t stop the wedding John was soon exposed for a long list of harrowing crimes – including the murder of Nate Robinson.

Just as Aaron hoped that him and Robert could start again, another obstacle was thrown into the mix. That obstacle being Robert’s prison husband, Kev Townsend.

On Wednesday (November 12), a special episode will air delving into Robert’s time in prison, and when he met Kev.

In a spoiler video released for the episode, it showed Robert meeting Kev for the first time as he was transferred to Hotten prison just a year into his sentence – a secret Aaron knew nothing about until now.

Now, some fans are hoping that because Robert had been in Hotten for the majority of his sentence, that he would have seen Liv Flaherty before she died.

She was first introduced when she asked Aaron and Robert Sugden for money at a park, unaware of their family connection. Later, she found out the truth that Gordon had abused Aaron repeatedly as a child.

After that, Liv became a regular character in the village and developed a close bond with both Aaron and Robert. She struggled with her sexuality before coming to the realisation that she was asexual.

In 2020, Liv struck up a relationship with Vinny Dingle. The couple eventually got married in 2022 but their happiness was short-lived when Emmerdale’s 50th anniversary rolled around.

During a storm, Liv became trapped between a mobile home and the shop. Although paramedics arrived, her injuries were too severe and she died after saying her tearful goodbyes to Aaron and Vinny.

On X (formerly known as Twitter), @cossalltheway wrote: “If Robert transferred to Hotten then the returning face has a big chance of being Liv.. What if Aaron got a letter that showed Robert close and she went to see him?”

@bane_lightwoodx replied: “I’m really REALLY hoping it is liv. I would cry happy tears. It breaks my heart that we’ll never get new roblivion scenes but if we had a new one with her and robert it’d somehow be healing”.