Ever since Mick Carter vanished beneath the waves on Christmas Day 2022, EastEnders fans have been hoping Danny Dyer would make a comeback to the soap.

Real soap lovers know that if a character’s death isn’t shown on screen, there is always a possibility they might make a dramatic return, revealing they never actually died.

Danny Dyer himself is aware of that soap tradition, and here is what he has said about a return to Albert Square over the past two years. The actor became one of Eastender’s most popular characters when he joined the BBC series as landlord Mick Carter in 2013.

His dramatic exit aired on Christmas day 2022, where Mick plunged into the sea in an attempt to rescue his wife Linda during a showdown with Janine Butcher after finally being reunited with his spouse. Linda survived, but Mick was never found and has been presumed dead since then.

Even though the door was left ajar for a comeback, Danny has repeatedly made it clear that he thinks the likelihood of Mick strolling back into Walford is quite small.

In a 2024 interview with Heatworld, the actor joked: “Look, I take it as a compliment that people want me to go back. Who knows? If there’s no closure there, then maybe I would come back for a dream sequence. I don’t think Mick could just rock up covered in seaweed!”

That said, Danny has admitted he would have seriously considered returning for the soap’s recent 40th anniversary celebrations, if producers had asked him to.

During an appearance on The Late Late Show this year, he revealed: “I do get a lot of people asking if I’d go back and I’ll be honest, I would have gone back if they’d have asked me, but they didn’t ask me. I think they’ve got the hump with me now, I don’t know why!”

He later sadly admitted that the time for him to make a comeback may now have passed, telling the Metro : “I think, because I’m not coming back for 40th I think I missed the boat – it needs to be something special, I think, for Mick to come back.”

Despite not getting an invite to the show’s 40th anniversary special, Danny has never hidden how much EastEnders meant to him personally and professionally.

This summer he told Closer magazine : “It saved my b****y career…I’d be f***ed without it.” He has also previously explained that leaving wasn’t a decision he took lightly.

But creatively, Danny felt Mick’s storyline had reached breaking point once he was romantically paired with Janine. While on the Late Late Show, he joked: “They put me with Janine, and when you end up with Janine, you’ve got to get out. You know she’s going to murder you eventually! So, I had to leave.”

On Rob Beckett’s Smart TV , he phrased the same sentiment a bit more bluntly, saying: “They f****** put me with Janine. I thought, ‘I’ve [got to] f*** off’.”

Since leaving the Square, Danny’s career has gone from strength to strength. He won awards for Sky comedy Mr Bigstuff, appeared in 2025 blockbuster film Marching Powder, and will soon be back on screen to star in the second series of Rivals.

However, as he previously told Heatworld, he hasn’t completely slammed the door on the possibility of coming back to EastEnders one day. He teased: “Who knows? Maybe I will go back. If the appetite’s still there for it, then maybe bring Mick back.”