The EastEnders Christmas special will feature the ‘past, present and future’ of the soap with the Branning and Slater family set for ‘drama.’

Ben Wadey, the new executive producer of the show, has teased details of the eagerly-awaited episode and assured fans that bosses have ‘bought their A-game’.

Ben told RadioTimes.com: ‘This Christmas, we’re looking past, present and future, so we’ve got a lot of stuff that we’re very excited to share with the audience.’

He also revealed that various families, including the Brannings and the Slaters, will find themselves in the midst of drama in upcoming episodes.

‘Of course, Zoe is now back in the square, and Zoe and Kat’s relationship is complicated. There are 20 years there for them to try and recover and get to know each other.

‘Zoe has a lot of secrets that she’s going to bring into the Square with her, so the Slaters are in for a whole ride this autumn,’ Ben added.

Zoe came face-to-face with her mother Kat last week after 20 years.

Viewers of the long-running BBC soap were left stunned as the mother and daughter duo stood in the exact same spot where Kat declared she was her mother – a scene that has gone down in soap history.

However, in heartbreaking scenes, she told Kat she couldn’t stay in Walford and took off from the pub.

As a devastated Kat chased after Zoe through the Square, Jack and Ravi fought over the gun the copper tried to plant on him and it accidentally went off.

The shot was fired in the direction of Kat and Zoe as a horrified Jack looked on at the unfolding scene.

As Zoe fights for her life in hospital a flashback revealed how the daughter of Kat Moon has been seeing Max Branning away from the Square.

The revelation has left fans floored – particularly as the ladies man previously had an affair with her cousin Stacey Slater.

Their infidelity was exposed during the Christmas Day episode in 2007 as Max’s wife Tanya and Stacey’s boyfriend Bradley – Max’s son, watched a secret recording of them both.

Viewers last saw Max in 2021 as he left Walford after his affair with Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) was exposed and she decided to stay with Mick over him.

His brother Jack (Scott Maslen) told him to move on with his life, which inspired him to leave and go to New Zealand to be with his daughter Lauren (Jacqueline Jossa).

Meanwhile, Rudolph Walker previously claimed that the soap will be tackling storylines that ‘we’ve never seen on television before’ under Ben’s leadership.

The actor, 85 – who has played Patrick Trueman on EastEnders since 2001 – told Best of British magazine: ‘Ben is great. He’s come in. He’s very positive about the future of EastEnders.

‘And I have very high hopes that we are going to see things that maybe we’ve never seen on television before. Or if we did, it hasn’t been highlighted. I think we’re going to see a lot more of that.’