EastEnders fans strongly predict Max Branning’s flash-forward bride after voting in thousands
Fans of EastEnders have voted in their thousands and revealed their top pick to be the future bride of Max Branning.
The BBC One soap aired a flash-forward episode which showed resident Lothario Max (Jake Wood) would be marrying a mystery bride on New Year’s Day 2027.
The episode presented four ‘official’ candidates to be the bride when Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) placed a call to the bride after police briefly detained Max under suspicion of solicitation to murder.
These four candidates were Chelsea Fox (Zaraah Abrahams), Linda Carter (Kellie Bright), Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins), and Denise Fox (Diane Parish, absent in the episode).
However, this doesn’t rule out a host of other possibilities – including other women already in Walford, such as Priya Nandra-Hart (Sophie Khan Levy) and Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan), or departed characters like Max’s second wife, Tanya Cross (Jo Joyner) or former mistress Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner).
Despite all of this, fans voted on RadioTimes.com in their thousands – more than 4,500 times and predicted the bride to be Chelsea Fox.
The pair have no romantic history, but Chelsea was shown to be attracted to Max in the episodes running up to New Year’s Day, and has previously been involved with his brother and her future step-father, Jack.
The episode also showed that Chelsea’s sister, Libby Fox (Belinda Owusu), was back in Walford on the same day as the wedding.
In second place, however, was Stacey Slater, who is currently living away from Walford in Brazil as actress Lacey Turner takes an indefinite break from the soap. Jake Wood did say Stacey was Max’s “true love” after all…
In third place was Max’s former lover and mother of his daughter, Annie (Lois Hawkins), Linda Carter, followed by the ‘Someone else’ option, as some viewers don’t believe the bride is any of the obvious suspects.
In fifth place was Max’s most recent lover and fellow toxic parent, Cindy Beale, while Max’s former sister-in-law Denise Fox narrowly pipped Tanya to sixth place, with the former Mrs Branning taking seventh place.
Finally, Max’s former lover Zoe Slater took eighth place, and Priya Nandra-Hart – who Max shared a knowing glance with on New Year’s Eve – took the bottom spot.
The full results of the poll are below.
- Chelsea Fox – 27%
- Stacey Slater – 14%
- Linda Carter – 13%
- Someone else – 12%
- Cindy Beale – 11%
- Denise Fox – 8%
- Tanya Cross – 8%
- Zoe Slater – 5%
- Priya Nandra-Hart – 3%
We’ll have to wait and see who Max eventually ends up with – and whether he or the bride can be trusted in this new relationship.
“We know what’s changing,” revealed executive producer Ben Wadey in December.
“We know how relationships are going to be slightly upset or upended. So [we’ve been] keeping an eye on all of that, and making sure that those details, as well as the big tent poles, are properly locked down has been a real challenge.
“The other thing I’d say is to take notice of the stuff that’s not in that episode and the gaps in between, because there’s probably a few clues there.”