Producers decided to recast the character again in 2014 from Stroud to child actor Eliot Carrington. Carrington was chosen to play Bobby because producers wanted an actor with "emotional depth". Bobby departs the series with Jane in May 2014, marking Stroud's final appearance in the role. Six months later, the character returned with Carrington now in the role. At the time, the Beale family were at the centre of the "Who Killed Lucy Beale?" storyline, a whodunit plot following the murder of Bobby's half-sister Lucy, which leads to the show's thirtieth anniversary episodes. A flashback episode, which features the reveal of Lucy's killer, was commissioned as part of the anniversary episodes. Executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins wanted the reveal to be different to previous whodunit reveals which revealed the character in one line. He told Mark Wilson of "The Guardian" that the reveal of Lucy's killer would be "more complicated" and would involve multiple conversations. Minimal people knew about the identity of Lucy's killer to avoid any leaks with more members of the cast and crew being informed over the course of the storyline.