Joel Marshall

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Villain Overview

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Joel Marshall is a fictional character and major antagonist of the BBC British soap opera EastEnders, currently serving as the show's secondary antagonist from March 2025 onwards.

He is portrayed by Max Murray.

Biography[]

Joel Marshall arrived in Walford in a taxi alongside his father Ross Marshall and the latter's girlfriend, Vicki Fowler. Once he has settled at 43 Albert Square, Vicki's half-sister Sharon Watts asks him how the flight was, but he fails to respond properly, with his father remarking that she won't be able to get a word out of him. Joel responds to Ross by telling him that he isn't 10 years old. Later on, when Vicki is being questioned about her affair by Kat Slater and Alfie Moon, Joel tells them to leave her alone, and calls Alfie an old man. Joel leaves the house and decides to have a look around Albert Square, where he comes across Avani Nandra-Hart and tells her that he can get her free booze. However, when she rejects him and asks him how old he is, he tells her that he is only 15. Joel then comes across Tommy Moon, and the two strike up a friendship, despite Alfie seeing the two together and scolding Joel for their earlier interaction. In the evening, Joel is seen sitting with Tommy on a swing at the park, with Joel asking Tommy where the fit girls are at.

Joel is quickly revealed to have a very sexist world view. He makes multiple comments degrading women to Tommy and begins talking with Avani. He and Avani eventually sleep together, which Joel films. After finding out about this, Ravi Gulati attacks Joel, and Vicki and Ross agree to change his school, however they don’t discover he filmed the intercourse. Joel then begins trying to make Tommy like him, telling him women are worth less than men and saying his speech about his parents is “gay”. He eventually convinces Tommy to use Alfie Moon’s credit card to pay for porn. One day when out with Tommy on the Tube, Joel notices Isla, and tells Tommy to film him. He approaches Isla and pretends to fall over, and while doing so places his hand up her skirt and the other on her breast. Tommy is visually disgusted but Joel dismisses him. When getting off, the pair notice Isla reporting him and run, Joel gets caught but his father and Vicki soon arrive. Vicki is able to pay Isla into not reporting it, but warns Joel never to do anything like that again.

When Denzel Danes is babysitting for Patrick Trueman’s party, he quickly makes it into a party for him and his friends. Joel arrives and convinces Denzel to help get some alcohol from the birthday party. The two convince Elaine Peacock to let them have a glass of punch each, but the two steal two jugs and run back to 20 Albert Square. When they take their eyes off the jugs, Bert Moon, Ernie Moon and Raymond Fox get their hands on the jugs and drink almost all of them. While trying to help them, Joel sneaks out with a smirk on his face to inform Denise Fox of what has happened.

It is revealed later on that Avani has fallen pregnant with Joel’s baby. She initially plans on having an abortion, going as far as booking and attending the appointment, but is convinced by her step-grandmother Suki to keep the baby and allow her and her wife Eve to raise the baby.

To try and keep Joel out of trouble, Ross takes Joel and Tommy to work, where the young impressionable boys witness sexist and misogynistic jokes. Joel later visits Tommy at the Queen Vic and calls Stacey and Kat sexist names, to which Alfie Moon tells Joel be must never call a woman such a thing.

Later on, to understand Joel more, Ross watches Joel’s favourite influencer’s videos on Joel’s laptop. Ross says he understands partly where some of this comes from. He then sees an email exchange Joel has had with others on the internet and is made aware of Joel sharing and receiving violent sexual videos, some of which Joel has created himself. Disgusted, Ross berates Joel and destroys his laptop by placing it into the sink under running water.

The following day, Vicki discovers the broken laptop in the kitchen sink and questions it, Joel turns on the charm and tries to get a new laptop from Vicki, to which she says she will consider only if he is on his best behaviour, and only up to £100. Joel apologises to Kat and is allowed to see Tommy in the Queen Vic, all the while Vicki and Stacey bond over a bottle of wine and Vicki comes to the realization that Joel does not deserve a replacement laptop, Tommy inadvertently reveals that Stacey was previously a Secret Cam model and her online alias was IceSkater95.

When Joel gets home, Ross has bought him a brand new laptop, and considers re-enrolling Joel into Walford High, despite Vicki's ruling on the matter. Joel logs into Secret Cam and leaks Stacey’s content - some of which she had never made public - onto a Walford community group social media page. He captions these with derogatory statements, and covers his tracks, though the wording he uses alludes to it being him who leaked the content.

Joel asks Tommy if he would like to be a part of a misogynistic online group.

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Trivia[]

The character's misogyny storyline was further explored in a documentary called EastEnders Investigates: The Manosphere.