Emmerdale fans were guessing at the meaning behind an eerie opening sequence that kicked off tonight's episode, as the series starts its special flashforward week.
The Yorkshire Dales-based soap has teased that there will be surprises during this first-of-its-kind flashforward week, which will episodes featuring brief glimpses of the future as lives in the village dangle in the balance.
The opening of tonight's episode (Monday) featured a shot of the village before the screen turned into a darker tone. A montage them played out of images of a cemetery, a person carrying a shotgun in the woods, a car crash, a dirt-covered hand clawing at what looked like a grave and someone looking through a door window.
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The images had viewers scratching their heads and some anticipating that a character may be making a return. @mikepriestley13 wrote: "I’m questioning if that figure in the woods is Jamie tate. I’m sure if he wanted to come back to wreak havoc surely he would of done that the other week when his mother in law come to village. Wonder if it’s joe tate?"
@JordanPhelps21 wrote on Twitter: "If Jamie doesn’t come back then what has been the point in any of this!"
Others thought the clip may have been relating to an ongoing storyline, with @Mammy_white saying: "I’m trying to work out who’s hand is in the mud so checking fingernails for short unpolished ones so far all have short unpolished nails although I think it’s Noah in the mud going by colour of his top and shoes."
Others commented saying how the clip had sparked their interest, with @PoliticalTVNerd saying: "Great opening scene in tonight’s big week of @emmerdale this is going to be epic."
Not everyone was impressed though, with My6percent saying: "Whisper it but I'm really struggling to be interested in Emmerdale currently. Not even a black and white flashforward and dramatic music can shift this feeling..."
Producer Laura Shaw previously teased that they had been planning the flash forward week "for a while now", The Mirror reports.
"We've been planning this for a while now and we know that the audience love it when we step out of our usual storytelling style. We've done a similar sort of thing like this before - we did the Big Night Out episode, we did Graham's murder and we're going to be following a similar pattern of episodes that start with flash-forwards that gives the audience the chance to play a bit of Emmerdale detective and see if they can work out what's going to happen during the week," she teased to The Mirror and other press.
"I think it's always exciting when we do these weeks and I think Emmerdale's become really well known for them now and it's always the question I get asked the most - when are you doing it again?" she added.
"Certainly here, it gets the whole building buzzing with excitement, because everyone knows it's going to mean some stories that have been bubbling away are going to massively explode in a huge way, whilst also kicking off other stories in a big dramatic fashion that will take us through the rest of the year and to our huge 50th birthday celebrations in October."
*Emmerdale airs weekdays at 7.30pm on ITV.
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