Ebenezer Trailer: Johnny Depp Returns as Scrooge

Paramount Pictures has released a second trailer for "Ebenezer," giving Johnny Depp his first lead in a Hollywood studio film in eight years, Variety reported.

The film is directed by Ti West as a new take on "A Christmas Carol," the Charles Dickens story of a miser forced to face his past. Depp stars as Ebenezer Scrooge, the counting-house owner haunted on Christmas Eve.

Paramount is selling it with the logline "The name you know, the story you don't." The earlier trailer showed Scrooge tormented through the Christmas season by terrifying spirits, Variety reported, and the new cut leans further into fear rather than festive warmth.

The ensemble around Depp is large. Rupert Grint, Andrea Riseborough, Sam Claflin and Daisy Ridley co-star, alongside Arthur Conti, Ellie Bamber, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Charlie Murphy, Tramell Tillman and Ian McKellen.

"Ebenezer" is set for a theatre release on 13 November 2026 through Paramount. That places it at the start of the holiday corridor, when family titles and awards contenders crowd the calendar.

The date matters for Depp. His last Hollywood studio film was 2018's "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald." He was later dropped from the follow-up, "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore," which reached cinemas in 2022 without him.

West arrives with a clear genre record. He previously directed the "X" horror trilogy, three linked slashers that played theatrically through A24.

Depp already has a next studio project lined up. He will star with Madelyn Cline and Penélope Cruz in "Day Drinker," a thriller from Lionsgate set for release in March 2027.

What makes this stand out is the pairing. A Christmas staple told as straight horror is rare at this budget level, and Scrooge gives Depp a widely known character to work with after years away from major US releases.