We have spent the past nine months trying to work out who is going to end up dead on the floor on Christmas day in EastEnders this year, and now it seems that one of our most likely suspects will live to tell the tale.
Ever since the flash forward episode aired in February and showed The Six gather around a dead body, we have had several potential victims in mind.
One name that has popped up regularly since that fateful episode is Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden), though it seems that we may have been barking up the wrong tree.
New pictures obtained by Metro.co.uk have shown cast members filming for the funeral of Aunt Sal. With the Christmas episodes having already been filmed, we know that this funeral is set to take place in the new year, meaning that the murder will have already happened.
So, imagine our shock to see that Phil Mitchell is in attendance at the funeral!
Phil has been at the centre of countless fan theories about who the body could be, and the fact that he is the character in the show that is currently in possession of the dreaded cufflinks doesn’t bode well.
However, we have seen the cufflinks passed around several times already, so we’re already anticipating them swapping hands countless more before the big day.
The cufflinks weren’t the only clue that suggested he may die though, as many fans pointed out that he is the one character with the most connections to The Six, having been married to Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth) and Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), shared a child with Denise Fox (Diane Parish), been attacked by Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner), done business with Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal) and sold the Queen Vic to Linda Carter (Kellie Bright).
Pair this with the fact that wife Kat Slater uttered the phrase ‘Who knows what will be this time next year?’ and the fact that actor Steve is heading off to do panto this Christmas, and the clues to his exit were stacking up.
But with Phil now out of the running, it seems we will have to look elsewhere.
While we haven’t entirely ruled out EastEnders bringing back Steve McFadden while filming on location just to throw us off the scent, there are still a huge number of suspects that could be found dead on Christmas day.
Rapist Dean Wicks (Matt Di Angelo) has returned to the Square and is causing trouble for everyone, and with Kathy having promised Linda that she would have a ‘wall of friends’ to protect her from him, things aren’t looking good for him.
Elsewhere, Keanu Taylor (Danny Walters) has been playing with fire after staging Albie’s kidnap, and with Sharon having recently discovered that he isn’t actually the father, it is surely only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose.
Rocky Cotton (Brian Conley) is another character who has been playing with fire, but literally in this case. Having burnt down Kathy’s beloved café and hospitalised both of her grandsons, we can’t imagine that Kathy will take this well if she ever found out. Not to mention that Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry) is now sniffing around in the ashes hoping to scoop up the site for a low price.
Speaking of Nish, he is another character that many suspect will end up dead, following his cruel treatment of Suki. With producer Chris Clenshaw having confirmed that Suki and Eve’s affair is set to be exposed, could he lash out again and secure his spot on the Queen Vic floor?
On top of them, there is still Theo Hawthorne (William Ellis), Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara), Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), Jack Branning (Scott Maslen), Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) and Martin Fowler (James Bye) to consider, given that all of them were spotted wearing the dreaded cufflinks during a stunt at the National Television Awards.
Basically, it could still be anyone!
