Maximus Evans says a Coronation Street return is possible, but only if the story is strong enough to justify bringing Corey Brent back. The former soap actor, now 25, says any comeback would need real expansion rather than a quick reappearance.
That sets a clear standard for ITV’s soap: Evans is not closing the door, but he is drawing a line around the kind of material that would pull him back. He says Corey’s prison future is the sort of territory that could make a return worth doing.
Corey Brent in 2019
Evans arrived in Coronation Street in 2019 as Corey Brent, a character first tied to Asha Alahan through Amy Barlow. The relationship turned troubled, and the storyline escalated into one of the soap’s harder-edged plots.
In 2021, the hate crime storyline aired after Corey recorded an online video chat involving Asha, and Kelly Neelan later shared the recording online. Corey then brutally killed Seb Franklin after attacking him and Nina Lucas over the way she looked.
British Soap Award for Corey Brent
The part brought Evans a British Soap Award for his portrayal, and Corey Brent took six months to face punishment for the crime. He later tried to flee the country with his dad, Stefan, before he was eventually charged with murder.
That history is why a return would not work as background noise. Evans is talking about a character whose story already carries prison, guilt and fallout, so any re-entry would have to add something new instead of replaying old beats.
VisionQuest and voice roles
In the past four or five years away from Corrie, Evans says he has done jobs that surprised him in scale. He says he was lucky enough to be involved with the Harry Potter Audible series, where he played Draco Malfoy, and that doing voice roles opened up a side of the industry he had not worked in before.
He is also just about to be in VisionQuest, which he describes as a Marvel series, while saying he is still only 25 and trying to branch out as much as he can. That makes the Coronation Street question less about whether he needs the soap, and more about whether the soap can still offer him a role big enough to matter.
What Corey Brent needs
Evans said he would be interested if the idea was really great and there was some sort of expansion of the character. He also said he would rather meet a version of Corey a couple of years down the line than return immediately after the accident, which had already been offered when he was at drama school.
He says a return has to be right and has to mean something. On the evidence he has given, the bar is simple: Coronation Street would need to build Corey Brent into a prison story with purpose, not just reopen the door for nostalgia.
