The soap has begun airing one of its darkest storylines of recent times

Fans are not hopeful for a member of the Marshall family(Image: BBC)

EastEnders fans are predicting a ‘sinister’ character will be ‘killed’ in what they say will be ‘brutal’ scenes following a cruel twist.

It’s been nearly three months since a death has occurred on the BBC soap, with Martin Fowler and Reiss Colwell both dying in the BBC soap’s 40th anniversary week in February.

On top of this, the show recently said goodbye to Natalie Cassidy’s Sonia Fowler and Patsy Palmer’s Bianca Jackson, who left the programme together last month.

Despite a number of characters leaving, viewers are convinced that one dark storyline is heading in one direction in the coming months.

Introduced to the show with his dad Ross Marshall and a returning Vicki Fowler, Joel Marshall has wasted no time in causing drama.

The teenager has been a bad influence on his fellow Walford teenagers, encouraging Tommy Moon to watch pornography and smoking with Avani Nandra-Hart.

Joel has taken a strong interest in Avani, who has been struggling in recent months after being strip searched at a police station over a misunderstanding.

Joel Marshall in EastEnders(Image: BBC)

On Monday (May 5), Vicki and Ross were stunned to find out that Joel and Avani had slept together while they were out of the house.

In scenes that aired on Tuesday (May 6), Avani quickly fled from the scene as Vicki tried to downplay the severity of the situation in a bid to calm Ross down.

However, things took a turn for the worse when Ross discovered that Joel secretly recorded himself sleeping with Avani without her knowledge.

Joel is not aware that Avani’s father Ravi Gulati is one of the most feared men in town, having dangled Barney Mitchell over a bridge last year over a misunderstanding with his daughter.

Having already killed his adoptive father Ranveer Gulati on New Year’s Day, fans took to EastEnders Reddit page to speculate that Ravi could go after Joel next.

@XDgirlChelsea said: “He will get dangled off the bridge, and also dropped from it.” @guiltySignificance0 added: “I look forward to seeing what Ravi has in store for him.”

@every_Psychology9 wrote: “It’ll be brutal, I’m sure. But I bet he’ll be restrained by someone before he unleashes 100% of that brutality on Joel’s head.” @unicornsnRainbowzposted: “I’m not happy with young people dying nor Ravi killing but I’m happy to put these two rules aside for now.”

@scrutinEye commented: “Joel is genuinely sinister. The young actor is knocking it out the park – he’s probably the best and most naturalistic new addition in a while.” @adriana_xxxxx stated: “He tells Avani everything she wants to hear just to get her into a vulnerable position so he can take advantage. It’s scary how calculated and fake someone can be.”