Paramount Pictures has released a new trailer for Ebenezer, Ti West’s dark new take on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol — and the Ebenezer trailer Johnny Depp fans have been waiting for shows the actor almost unrecognizable as the miserly Scrooge. The film opens in theaters on Nov. 13.
The new preview, which dropped on Thursday, Oct. 1, marks Depp’s biggest Hollywood swing in years. According to People, Ebenezer will be Depp’s first movie released by a major Hollywood studio since Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) — a comeback nearly eight years in the making.
This is not your grandmother’s Christmas Carol. West, the horror auteur behind X, Pearl and MaXXXine, leans into genuine ghost-story chills: graying hair, a full scowl, colored contacts and a heavy Victorian wardrobe make Depp’s Scrooge feel like a man the three spirits would actually be afraid of. The official tagline puts it bluntly: “The name you know, the story you don’t.”
Ebenezer Trailer Johnny Depp Breakdown: Marley’s Warning and the Three Spirits
The trailer opens with Scrooge at his worst — a wealthy, bitter businessman who coldly rejects pleas for charity and turns away the people who try to connect with him. When asked for donations for the poor, his response is pure Dickens: he simply wishes to be left alone.
Then the haunting begins. Scrooge is visited in his bedroom by the spectral apparition of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley — played by 87-year-old Ian McKellen, pale-faced and dragging heavy chains. Marley delivers the familiar warning with a new menace: Scrooge “will be haunted by three spirits,” setting him on a frightening journey through his past, present and future.
What follows is a gothic gauntlet: visions of Christmas past, present and yet to come rendered like genuine horror imagery, including what looks like Scrooge being buried alive. But West also threads in dark comedy — at one point Scrooge asks whether he can “just meet with them all at once and have it over and done with.” Another lighter beat shows him hurling snowballs at a couple, a sharp contrast to the disturbing imagery around him.
The trailer’s arc ends where Dickens’ story must: a terrified miser transformed into a man embracing a new lease on life. In one shot, Scrooge — the same man who opened the footage turning to the camera with a wink and saying, “It’s good to be back” — cries out, “I’m alive! I don’t know what to do!”
Ti West’s Take on Dickens: “Genuine” and “In Reverence of the Text”
Hiring the director of X and Pearl for a Christmas classic raised eyebrows, but West has told Entertainment Weekly that his adaptation is “genuine” and made “in reverence of the text” — even with its horror-leaning stylistic touches.
That balancing act is exactly what the trailer sells. The candlelit rooms, cramped offices and snowy streets look faithful to Dickens’ 1843 novella, while the spirits themselves are treated as real horror imagery rather than cozy TV-movie effects. It is recognizably A Christmas Carol — and recognizably Ti West.
West also praised Depp’s performance, singling out the actor’s mix of unlikeability, humor and charm as Scrooge. It is easy to see why in the trailer: Depp’s Scrooge is genuinely unpleasant in the opening scenes, then disarmingly funny, then finally broken open — a full character arc in about two minutes.
Ebenezer Trailer Johnny Depp Cast: The Full Lineup
Depp and McKellen anchor an ensemble that mixes familiar faces with rising stars. Harry Potter alum Rupert Grint plays Scrooge’s put-upon clerk Bob Cratchit, opposite Daisy Ridley. The cast also includes Andrea Riseborough, Sam Claflin, Ellie Bamber and Tramell Tillman, all of whom appear in the trailer’s ghostly set pieces.
McKellen’s casting is the trailer’s other big swing. At 87, the screen legend brings real gravitas to Marley — Scrooge’s late business partner and the film’s harbinger of doom — and the footage of their fireside confrontation is among the trailer’s most striking images.
Why ‘Ebenezer’ Is Johnny Depp’s Big Comeback
Since his highly publicized 2022 defamation trial, Depp has kept his distance from major Hollywood studios. He starred in the French film Jeanne du Barry, which opened the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, and directed Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness — but Ebenezer is his first leading role for a major studio since 2018, and his first true Hollywood lead in years.
He has been warming audiences up to the idea all summer: Depp surprised fans by appearing in full Scrooge costume at San Diego Comic-Con in July, days after the film’s first trailer debuted, during a pop-up activation promoting the movie. A source told People that Ebenezer “felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for the actor and a “very special project for him,” adding: “He’s back in a character role, which he loves. He really comes to life when he’s in those characters — they’re in his DNA.”
The reaction to Depp’s return has been predictably passionate. Coverage of the trailer has been divisive among fans, with Fox News reporting that the new footage sparked fresh debate about the actor’s Hollywood comeback — a reminder that Depp remains one of the most polarizing figures in entertainment.
And Scrooge may only be the beginning. Depp already has his next studio project lined up: Day Drinker, co-starring Madelyn Cline and Penélope Cruz, is set for March 2027. For a fuller look at the holiday movie season, see the trailer for Robert Eggers’ Christmas horror Werwulf, another genre director taking a big swing this season — and check our September box office roundup to see what Depp will be up against at the multiplex.
FAQs: ‘Ebenezer’ Release Date, Cast and Trailer
When does ‘Ebenezer’ come out?
Ebenezer opens in theaters on Nov. 13, 2026, courtesy of Paramount Pictures — timed to kick off the holiday movie season.
Who plays Jacob Marley in ‘Ebenezer’?
Ian McKellen, 87, plays the ghost of Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s deceased business partner, who warns him that he will be haunted by three spirits.
Is ‘Ebenezer’ Johnny Depp’s first studio movie in years?
Yes. According to People, it is Depp’s first movie released by a major Hollywood studio since Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018). Since then he starred in the French film Jeanne du Barry and directed Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness.
Who directed ‘Ebenezer’?
Ti West, the horror filmmaker behind X, Pearl and MaXXXine. He has described the film as “genuine” and made “in reverence of the text,” despite its horror-leaning stylistic touches.
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