EastEnders star utterly unrecognisable with new look as he stages return

While we could all agree that EastEnders’ most twisted teen, Joel Marshall (Max Murray), was pretty rotten, we could all also agree that he had pretty good hair!

Rocking a centre part and curtains that would make the lead singer of any 00s boyband positively green with envy, Joel had an incredibly enviable mane.

As the enormously controversial character is released from the young offenders unit this week and heads back to Walford, however, he does so with a whole new look.

Now more resembling Aitch than Bryan from Westlife, the returning Joel is entirely without his golden bangs and has the standard ‘just got out of clink’ buzz cut.

Fingers crossed, he’s left his violent misogyny and hideous views on masculinity on the barber’s floor along with his longer locks.

Joel was sent to the young offenders unit as a result of his stomach-turning attack on step mum Vicki Fowler (Alice Haig) as his incel plotline reached a violent crescendo.

Vicki, Joel and his dad, Ross Marshall (Alex Walkinshaw), arrived in Walford after being forced to flee Australia after Joel had disgracefully ‘upskirted’ a school mate. Her parents agreed to leave the police out of things, so long as Ross paid them $50,000 and immediately left the country.

Though Ross hoped a fresh start would change his son’s ways, he was already too far down the path of radical misogyny and inceldom, consuming dark and disturbing content from women-hating influencers.

Though Vicki was initially in the dark about the reasoning behind their escape from Oz – believing instead that Ross owed money to loan sharks – she was hit with the truth when she and Ross caught Joel and fellow Square teen, Avani Nandra-Hart (Aaliyah James), getting intimate.

Vicki was confused at first, surely it was just silly teenage hijinks? But Ross was forced to spill all the tea when he discovered that Joel had actually filmed his physicality with Avani – without her even knowing, much less consenting.

Joel continued to get worse and worse. He posted the video of Avani online and proceeded to viciously shame her, while also terrorising Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner). He introduced new friend, Tommy Moon (Sonny Kendall), to extreme pornography, while also attempting to induct him into his way of thinking by sharing the content of misogynistic influencers with him.

His behaviour reached a sickening new peak, with him sexually assaulting a commuter on the tube.

In an incredibly bleak turn of events, Vicki paid the victim for her silence in her desperation to keep the situation under control for Ross’ sake, but when she felt the full force of his twisted ideals after an attempted intervention with Julie Bates (Karen Henthorn), she, and we as the audience, realised Joel was too far gone.

After Joel knocked Vicki senseless, he filmed her lifeless body while continuing to spit hideous rhetoric at her.

He attempted to hide out at Tommy’s, but both his friend and his dad reported him to the police, leading to his arrest.

Vicki and Ross fell apart in the aftermath, and Vicki’s trauma continued to intensify, with Joel determined to plead not guilty and thus forcing her to stand up in court and testify against him.

He took sheer delight in forcing both Vicki and Avani to relive what he did to them, though when Ross intervened and seemingly got through to his son, Joel, completely unexpectedly, changed his plea to guilty, after which he was sentenced to six months in the unit.

The prospect of him returning to their family home almost destroyed Vicki and Ross’ impending nuptials, but Ross eventually agreed that Joel would live with his mum, Cleo, upon his release when Vicki made it crystal clear that she would never feel safe under the same roof as him.

Next week sees the news of Joel’s release begin to spread, with Priya Nandra-Hart (Sophie Khan-Levy) desperate to reassure Avani that he won’t return to the Square.

When he does in fact reappear, Vicki is sent into an utter tailspin and seeks out her half-sister, Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) for support, leading to a confrontation with a furious and terrified Avani and Amy Mitchell (Ellie Dadd).

With the entire community against him, will Joel’s return be a fleeting one?