The cobblestones of Albert Square are no stranger to tragedy, but the 2025 festive season has delivered a blow that will resonate for years to come. In a move that has stunned the loyal fanbase of EastEnders, Anthony Truman—a character whose history spans a quarter-century—met a violent and final end on Christmas Day. The shocking departure, marked by a fatal confrontation with Zoe Slater and a twist involving the formidable Chrissy Watts, serves as a grim exclamation point to a year of high-stakes drama and the springboard for a radical narrative experiment in 2026.

Actor Nick Bailey, who returned to the role of Anthony just months ago, describes the experience of being “killed off” on the show’s 25th anniversary as bittersweet. “It’s a huge honor to be part of a major Christmas plot,” Bailey noted, reflecting on the intense dialogue and demanding scenes that defined his final days in Walford. The revelation that Anthony was the father of Zoe’s twins—a secret buried with surgical precision by the show’s writers—unmasked a darker, more volatile side of a character who had long been seen as the “steady” Truman. According to Bailey, Anthony was a man who bottled his emotions for decades until the pressure finally caused an irreversible explosion.

However, the Truman tragedy is merely the opening act for what executive producer Ben Wade describes as a “year of revelation.” As the show moves into 2026, it is abandoning traditional linear storytelling in favor of a sophisticated “puzzle” format. This begins on New Year’s Day with a special flashforward episode that transports viewers to January 1, 2027. Centered on the Branning family, this temporal leap is designed to be a long-form mystery, with Wade warning fans that “not everything is as it initially appears.”

Unlike previous soap mysteries that withhold answers for an entire year, EastEnders is opting for a “slow drip” of clarity. Revelations will begin to surface just weeks after the flashforward, with crucial scenes being revisited and re-examined through different lenses as the months progress. This “re-interpretation” strategy aims to keep the audience in a constant state of reassessment, making the eventual resolution in 2027 feel both earned and inevitable.

The upcoming year also promises a rich tapestry of character-driven arcs. The return of the troubled Joel Marshall will trigger a high-profile trial that forces several residents—most notably Vicky—to relive past traumas in a public forum. This legal battle will set the stage for a classic soap love triangle involving Ross and Zach. Additionally, the introduction of Ronnie Anona as “Bea,” an old friend of Linda Carter’s with a penchant for “tragic comedy,” is expected to inject a new, distinctive energy into the Vic.

As Phil Mitchell and Nigel embark on a “heartfelt and grounded” journey and Harry Mitchell launches a ruthless revenge plot, the landscape of Albert Square continues to evolve. While the death of Anthony Truman marks the end of an era, Ben Wade’s 2026 vision suggests that in Walford, the end is often just a carefully constructed beginning. For a show that has thrived on the power of the “duff-duff” for forty years, this new era of flashforwards and shifting perspectives proves that EastEnders is still the master of the unexpected.