Pierre Counihan-Moullier has quit the Oscar Branning role, and the change lands with a long runway still built into the story. Oscar is set to remain on screen into 2027, so the exit is not about an immediate on-air goodbye.
That split timeline is the point of interest. EastEnders Oscar joined EastEnders in 2025, and the report says his final scenes have not yet been filmed.
2025 entry for Oscar Branning
2025 was the year Counihan-Moullier joined EastEnders as Oscar Branning, making him one of the first returning characters brought back by Ben Wadey in 2025. The soap has since used Oscar as a fast-moving piece of its cast turnover, with the character quickly pulled into chaos around Lauren Beale and later linked to Ian "Brian" Beale and Patrick Trueman.
Oscar also accidentally injured Patrick Trueman during a robbery, then reappeared through the January flash-forward episode tied to the New Year's Day drama. That episode ended with Max Branning forced to choose between saving Oscar and Lauren Beale.
2027 still keeps Oscar
2027 is the date that matters for viewers, because Oscar is expected to stay on screen at least until then. The report says the door will remain open for Counihan-Moullier, which leaves the character's departure as a delayed shift rather than a clean break.
For EastEnders, that is a practical bit of flexibility. The show can keep using Oscar in the story while holding the option of a return later, and it avoids turning a cast exit into an instant on-screen write-off.
Max Branning and the exit
Max Branning remains the character most directly tied to the long exit window, because the January flash-forward episode already placed Oscar inside a larger family crisis. Oscar's biggest storyline so far has been a love triangle involving Jasmine Fisher and Josh Goodwin, which gives the role enough screen weight to justify stretching the departure past the point when the actor has already stepped away.
The unresolved detail is the filming schedule for those final scenes. That is the practical marker that will tell viewers when the exit starts to matter on screen, not when the role change first became public.
