CARL WEBSTER’S FATE SEALED? THE TRUTH BEHIND THE EXIT RUMORS FINALLY EXPOSED! 🚪 🛑 🎭 📢
Coronation Street star Jonathan Howard has confirmed that he’s sticking with the soap beyond the dramatic murder episodes.
The actor has kept fans guessing for months over the future of his character Carl Webster, who was in the frame to be killed off this week.
Jonathan initially sparked speculation in February when he spoke about his time playing Carl in the past tense while appearing live on ITV’s This Morning.
Last month, he was accused of giving away that Carl doesn’t die when he posted a picture from the set, proving that he was still filming. Then things took another twist as he dropped an exit bombshell – announcing that he was flying off to the US, where he had lived with his family before joining Corrie.
“Well it is true that I’m going to America tomorrow morning!” Jonathan laughed. “[But] I do love the soap fans and the soap world. I’m not big into social media, but I have noticed that people are really intrigued to know. People like to guess and they like to find out. So I can have a little fun.
“I’m under strict instructions not to give anything away. But I have a short-term memory, so I sometimes post things that get me into trouble! So I have to cover that up a little bit…”
Jonathan had previously spoken about his desire to see a redemption arc for Carl if he survived this week.
Carl has spent his first year on the cobbles upsetting everybody – with affairs, car thefts and a hit-and-run disaster on his list of misdeeds. So, surely things can only improve from here?
The news means that we can expect to see more from Carl in his mum Debbie’s dementia story, paving the way for a possible reconciliation.
“I love Sue [Devaney], who plays Debbie,” Jonathan told us. “I’m so lucky that she plays my mum in the show. I think we have great chemistry, because I love her – and I think she likes me!
“So then that chemistry is free. We don’t have to put anything on. We don’t have to act anything. She takes care of me – she’s been here at Corrie longer than I have. She knows that I’ve moved back to England from America, I’ve left my daughter there. She’s really empathetic and compassionate.”
“Every time we do a scene where there has to be some sort of emotion, it just comes so easily with Sue,” he continued. “I just have to look at her – when we did the scene where she told me she was my mum, it made me emotional. It comes really easily – it’s like I get it for free with Sue!
“I didn’t know Carl was Debbie’s son when I first started, but pretty quickly into it, I sat down with the producer Kate Brooks. I was told then that this was the reveal and the big family secret, so I was sitting on it for quite a while!”
Friday’s episode confirmed that Carl wasn’t the dead body found by Betsy Swain, as Theo Silverton met his maker in mysterious circumstances.