EastEnders has seemingly ‘confirmed’ a huge fan theory regarding Joel Marshall (Max Murray).

Little is known about the Albert Square newcomer, other than the fact he’s found himself in a lot of trouble since his arrival.

Alongside dad Ross (Alex Walkinshaw) and Ross’ partner Vicki Fowler (Alice Haig), the trio came to Walford for her uncle Martin’s (James Bye) funeral.

It soon transpired that they couldn’t return to their home in Australia, as Joel had upskirted a pupil in his class, and Ross had paid her family $50,000 in exchange for their silence.

The youngster has then showed a number of worrying behaviours towards women – watching extreme adult content online with Tommy Moon (Sonny Kendall), recording himself sleeping with Avani Nandra-Hart (Aaliyah James) and this week, sexually assaulting a passenger on the London Underground.

Tommy witnessed the latter incident and was horrified, and as we saw in tonight’s episode, is reluctant to hang around with him.

This came following a conversation about a disgusting influencer, who degrades women.

Joel thought this was an appropriate way to talk about the opposite sex, branding his own mum a ‘slapper’, talking about how she abandoned him as a child.

But who exactly is his mum?

Well, fans flocked to social media to question whether recent returnee Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan) could’ve hooked up with Ross during her 20 year absence, and subsequently left him to raise their son.

‘So…Joel and Zoe….??’ said @E20AfterDark.

@blistatcapital wrote: ‘Zoe is going to be Joel’s Mum or something absurd like that.’

@RyanJL commented: ‘Come on, who cares about coincidences, Zoe being Joel’s mum is pure soap gold. Kat’s his Granny! Tommy’s his uncle! It’s Slater magic.’

Well, further fuel was added to that fire in tonight’s episode, with an off the cuff line that harked back to one of EastEnders’ most iconic scenes.

Back in 2001, Zoe discovered that her sister Kat (Jessie Wallace) was actually her mother.