Coronation Street has officially confirmed that Kelly Neelan will exit in upcoming scenes. It was reported last month that Millie Gibson will be bowing out of the ITV soap after three years on the cobbles "explosive" storyline.
Millie has already filmed her final scenes and the 18-year-old was joined by her Corrie pals last month as they said farewell to their young co-star at her packed leaving bash on Salford Quays.
And taking to her Instagram Story to mark the end of August last week, the teen shared a series of photos and said: "Last month on the cobbles..." featuring pictures of her in the make-up chair at the Salford-based set and out sipping champagne with her on-screen guardians Mikey North and Samia Longchambon.
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It was previously teased that Kelly could finally uncover the truth about killer Gary Windass, and the fact he allowed her dying mother Laura Neelan to take the blame for killing her dad, Rick. And now the soap’s producer Iain MacLeod has revealed that the pair will enter into a ‘Corriewood’ showdown as part of a ‘super September’ week this month which is usually saved for ITV’s ‘Super Soap Week’ in October.
“It leaves me with a heavy heart to say Kelly’s leaving the show and we thought the fact that Millie is going and therefore Kelly’s going allows us to go really big and do something incredibly high stakes and to get these characters to stand on these landmines with buried for them over the years and will go off in one cataclysmic explosion,” Iain revealed to the Manchester Evening News and other press.
“We’ve really thrown everything at this week to bring out all the secrets and lies,” he added of the big week. ”It’s funny, it’s got the party to end all parties in the middle of it, it’s characterful and it’s just an all-around great week of Coronation Street.”
And Iain has teased that Kelly and Gary’s story will reach it’s ‘full stop’. “Gary has to retrace his steps back into the forest of doom where he once fought for his life with Kelly’s dad, Rick,” he told us. “It’s really brilliant tying up slash full stop on that story that began with that desperate act from Gary all those years ago.”
“Finding ourselves in a position where we’re exiting Kelly it’s kind of now or never,” Iain commented as he revealed they’ve toyed numerous times with blowing Gary’s secret. “We’ve gone for broke with it really.”
Corrie has gone all out for the scenes, heading out to RecodeXR Studio in Trafford Park to film with special equipment used for mega movies like Avengers and Disney+ series The Mandalorian. And Iain believes they are the first soap opera to use the incredible technology.
Speaking about what they’ve used and what it achieves, Iain told us: “It’s called a volume wall. Essentially it’s like a very new version of a green screen and it means you can put your actors anywhere you can imagine. You can design a 3D world like the surface of mars and stick Ken and Rita up there having a sticky bun and a cup of tea if you wish.”
But this, of course, isn’t what they have done as it will be used as part of Gary and Kelly’s final face-off. “We’ve created an incredible rooftop sequence with a twinkling Mancunion cityscape behind it so that we can do things we’d never usually do on a location shoot,” Iain teased.
"It was mindbogglingly technical and we had to hire some experts who build this 3D version of Manchester that’s visible in all these scenes."
Last month, Millie shared some teasers from filming during a night shoot. She shared pictures on her Instagram stories between scenes after she was left awestruck by a bright full moon and also uploaded a video on location. "The camera did it more justice than my iPhone," she wrote before adding: "Perks of a night shoot."
And in first look pictures it appeared that before her confrontation with Gary, Kelly is facing danger herself. Millie was spotted filming at the Holiday Inn Express in Leigh Sports Village, donning a pink mini dress with her blonde locks styled into waves. The Weatherfield resident is seemingly in trouble when a gang grabs her on a night out. She is seen screaming and struggling with a hand over her mouth, as she is brutally accosted by the group of men.
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