‘Coronation Street’ bosses have confirmed a character will die when the factory is knocked down in a "colossal stunt".
Executive producer Iain MacLeod has teased supporters they can expect to see Underworld all fall down in 2019, and while the roof collapse looks to be an accident at first, it will later transpire that someone did it on purpose.
He said: "It’s one of the biggest things we’re doing in the next year. We’re knocking the factory down in March in a colossal stunt.
"It will at first appear to be an accident, but will then be revealed to be a mystery and it’ll have been some kind of criminal enterprise that causes it all to fall down.
"Somebody will be dying in said collapse. I’m not going to tell you who that is or who pulls the factory roof down! It’s going to collapse. The roof will fall in."
This Weatherfield tragedy will eventually lead to the creation of the next ‘Coronation Street’ "super villain" – just months after the death of the cobbles’ latest serial killer, Pat Phelan (Connor McIntyre).
He said: "It plays out over four or five months. The resolution of a whodunit is so fundamental to the enjoyment of a viewer, so we want to keep that under wraps.
"It’s a community story – everyone is out of a job temporarily, there are lots of financial and lifestyle stories spinning off from it. They emerge from the big incident.
"It will have ripples that extend into the next six to 12 months and will eventually see the coronation of our next super villain. This is the beginning of creating the next iteration of the ‘Corrie’ bad guy."
However, Iain insists the new ‘Corrie’ villain will be different to evil Phelan.
He added: "We’d never try to recreate that character because he was so unique – but we’re trying to design a new, properly ‘Corrie’, through-and-through villain.
"The factory collapse will be the start of that process."
Coronation Street boss confirms character death
