ITV Emmerdale announces new characters and it’s bad news for the Dingles

Emmerdale producer Laura Shaw has confirmed that two new characters are joining the soap

Emmerdale is preparing to introduce two fresh faces, who will arrive just in time to shake things up for some of the soap’s most beloved families.

Soap boss Laura Shaw has revealed that two new stars are heading to the village, with their characters set to join the Tate and Sugden families.

Since 2024, when Joe Tate (Ned Porteous) made his comeback to the soap alongside his grandmother Kim (Claire King) after stealing a kidney from Caleb Milligan (William Ash), Emmerdale has been steadily rebuilding the Tate family. Laura has admitted that while “everyone always talks about the Dingles”, she was keen to “build up some of the other families”, and has consequently planned to introduce new members.

She told Inside Soap: “There’s going to be a couple of arrivals to strengthen both the Tate and Sugden clans!”

She also noted her desire to remind viewers that Sarah (Katie Hill) is a Sugden. She further revealed that Kim’s stepdaughter, Dawn Fletcher (Olivia Bromley), and Joe’s legal guardian, Graham Foster (Andrew Scarborough), were brought back to bolster the Tate clan. “We went a bit mad,” she joked, reports the Mirror.

Laura stopped short of confirming the identities of these new arrivals or their connections to the Tates and Sugdens, but stressed how vital it was to her to “try to build that family of Tates up at Home Farm”.

As part of placing the Tates at the forefront of the drama, a recent plotline saw Joe Tate embark on an affair with Kim’s stepdaughter, Dawn.

Dawn was ready to walk away from her marriage for Joe, making the heartbreaking choice to end things with a devastated Billy Fletcher (Jay Kontzle). The pair have since got engaged, and Dawn is now expecting Joe’s child.

However, Dawn subsequently discovered how Joe had used evidence of Victoria Sugden (Isabel Hodgins) killing her evil brother, John (Oliver Farnworth), as leverage against the family — and that was far from the only shocking revelation.

Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb) laid bare how Joe bore partial responsibility for her being imprisoned following a set-up, and had allowed her to remain behind bars, despite knowing he could likely have secured her release. Reluctant as she was to accept it, Dawn soon came to realise that Moira was telling the truth.

Upon learning what Joe had done to both Moira and Victoria, Dawn resolved that she no longer wished to remain in a relationship with him. However, she hasn’t broken off her engagement.

Instead, she chose to keep up appearances, joining forces with Moira and her husband, Cain (Jeff Hordley), to strip Joe of everything he owns. Her scheme against Joe is expected to be exposed in a forthcoming storyline, one that could place Dawn in serious jeopardy.

Soap viewers have been growing increasingly concerned for Dawn ahead of this upcoming plot development, after recent reports suggested that Olivia Bromley, who plays Dawn, had been axed from Emmerdale.

The Sun reported that the character had been written out after eight years and that Olivia would be filming her final scenes this year, though this has yet to be addressed by the soap or Olivia herself. During her time on Emmerdale, Dawn has battled drug addiction, faced prostitution, escaped a gang, and killed DI Malone (Mark Womack).

Emmerdale airs weekday nights at 8pm on ITV1 and STV, while Coronation Street airs weekday nights at 8.30pm on ITV1 and STV as part of ITV’s new soap power hour scheduling pattern for Coronation Street and Emmerdale