Emmerdale spoilers to follow.
Emmerdale boss Laura Shaw has revealed that the soap will be getting two new additions to the cast later this year, for both the Tate and Sugden families.
It has not yet been revealed who the new arrivals will be, or what their connection will be to the existing members of both families.
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The announcement came in an exclusive interview with Inside Soap, as part of the summer preview issue.
“At the heart of last year, I wanted to cement the families in our show,” Laura revealed. “Everyone always talks about the Dingles, but I felt like we needed to build up some of the other families – that’s probably what I’m most proud of.”
Laura revealed that Joe Tate’s return to the soap in late 2024 served to build up the village’s prestigious Tate family, the wealthy owners of the Home Farm estate. Joe returned to the estate alongside his grandmother Kim Tate, after thieving a kidney from Caleb Milligan.
“What that story did was really cement Kim and Joe as surrogate mother and son, which was important to me, to try to build that family of Tates up at Home Farm,” she explained.
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“Similarly, we brought Dawn and the kids in to bolster it, and then we were missing the dad of the family, so we went mad and brought Graham back!”
However, Laura also revealed that the Tate family aren’t the only one that she’s hoping to build up, as she also plans to bring back the legacy family the Sugdens to their full potential. Currently, the only birth Sugdens left in the village are Robert and Sarah, despite the family being one of the soap’s core clans.
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“Well as I said about building the clans, I’ve been trying to do the same with the Sugdens as well as the Tates,” she said.
“Obviously, Isabel [Hodgins, who plays Victoria Sugden] is on maternity leave at the moment, but Sarah’s married Jacob – he’s taken the Sugden name – what I want to do over the course of the next few months is remind everyone that Sarah’s also a Sugden.
“There’s going to be a couple of arrivals to strengthen both the Tate and Sugden clans!”
To read our full exclusive chat with Laura about all the summer drama in Emmerdale, pick up the latest bumper issue of Inside Soap, available to buy now.
Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 8pm on ITV1, and streams on ITVX.
Read more Emmerdale spoilers on our dedicated homepage
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