Hollyoaks star Jennifer Metcalfe has revealed that fans can expect to see a "mind-blowing" change in her character Mercedes McQueen after the soap airs its time jump in September.
The show's executive producer Hannah Cheers confirmed earlier this year that, with Hollyoaks due to reduce its episodes from five per week down to three at the end of the summer, the soap will skip ahead a year to explain the loss of a number of characters who have been dropped as a result of the format change.
Mercedes is one of the characters who'll be sticking around following the time jump, but actress Metcalfe has told Radio Times that we will be seeing a very different Mercedes following the 12 months of off-screen events.
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"We're going to see Mercedes totally different to... we've ever, ever seen her before," she revealed at the Radio Times Soap Awards. "Over the, like, last 20 years when producers have given the storylines, I've been like: 'Oh, yeah, that's a little bit different.'
"[But] how we're going to see her in the jump forward, the year jump forward is, like, unbelievable and mind-blowing and I can't wait to play it as an actor."
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Mercedes has already experienced a big life change in last week's scenes after she gave birth to her twin daughters, whose fathers are Warren Fox and Felix Westwood.
While Mercedes is currently enjoying making a new family unit with the babies and Warren, her happiness is due to be short lived as Warren will be leaving Hollyoaks village in the coming months – although the circumstances of his exit haven't yet been revealed.
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Metcalfe's co-star Jessica Fox, who plays Nancy Osborne, has also spoken out about the soap's fast-forward, calling the idea "brilliant".
"We keep going, 'Oh, we're in the future!' It's a really novel and exciting way of dealing with a situation," she said. "It also means that you can tease so many things."
The Radio Times Soap Awards, which took place on Saturday (July 13), saw Hollyoaks win two gongs. The revelation that Mercedes' twins have different dads was named Best Twist, while Kitty Draper actor Iz Hesketh won the Best Newcomer award.
Hollyoaks streams first online via Channel 4 each weekday at 7.30pm. Episodes then air on E4 the following day, before getting their YouTube premiere a week after that.
Selected omnibus episodes are available via Prime Video.
