Johnny Depp didn't just debut a trailer at Comic-Con this week - he brought Ebenezer Scrooge to life in the streets of San Diego, and opened up about why the role means more to him than most.
Fully transformed with makeup, a black coat, and Scrooge's iconic top hat, Depp appeared outside a pop-up shop built to look like "Scrooge and Marley" in the Gaslamp Quarter on Thursday. After Christmas carolers warmed up the crowd on a balmy 80-degree afternoon, Depp emerged in character, grumbling at onlookers: "Have you no jobs? It seems as though you have so much spare time. I work." When one fan greeted him with "Good day to you, Mr. Scrooge," Depp shot back, "What's so pleasant about it?"
The stunt was more than a publicity bit. Later that day, Depp crashed the Collider Directors on Directing panel in Hall H, still in character, to help director Ti West unveil the first full trailer for Ebenezer, Paramount's dark new retelling of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Speaking about the role earlier this year, Depp called it "an extraordinary privilege," adding that Scrooge's story is one he has "been obsessed with since I was a little child." For an actor whose public image has spent years overshadowed by legal battles, the words carried extra weight - Scrooge's arc, after all, is a story about a man confronted with the truth of his life and given an unlikely chance to change before it's too late.
That message of second chances is the same one Dickens wrote into the original 1843 novella, and it's part of why Ebenezer has resonated with test audiences early, according to Paramount. West, known for horror films like X and Pearl, has said his own early exposure to Christmas Carol adaptations shaped his love of storytelling long before he became a filmmaker.
Ebenezer, also starring Ian McKellen, Andrea Riseborough, Rupert Grint, Daisy Ridley, and Sam Claflin, arrives in theaters November 13, 2026.
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