Johnny Depp Brings Scrooge to London: 'Ebenezer' Global Premiere Lights Up Leicester Square Ahead of November 13 Release

LONDON — Johnny Depp brought Christmas to Leicester Square four days early on Monday, 9 November 2026, as his gothic reimagining of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer, held its global premiere at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square — a snow-dusted red carpet and a full cast turnout marking the actor's return to a major-studio wide release for the first time in eight years, ahead of the film's theatrical opening on Friday, 13 November.

Illustration: A snow-dusted red carpet outside a London cinema at night, with Christmas trees and festive crowds — an artist's impression of the Ebenezer global premiere atmosphere, not a photograph of the event.

What Happened

Christmas came early to central London on Monday evening, as Johnny Depp stepped onto a red carpet decked out with Christmas trees and artificial snow for the global premiere of Ebenezer at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square. According to Deadline, 1950s festive classics played over the square as temperatures dropped, and the actor was joined by director Ti West and a large share of the film's ensemble cast.

Depp posed for photographers alongside Rupert Grint, who plays Bob Cratchit, Scrooge's long-suffering clerk, and the two men drew the loudest cheers of the evening as they arrived together. Also walking the carpet were Tramell Tillman, who plays the Ghost of Christmas Present; Sam Claflin, who plays Scrooge's nephew Fred; Ellie Bamber; Charlie Murphy; and Henry Lloyd-Hughes, alongside West, producer Emma Watts and screenwriter Nathaniel Halpern, according to reports from the premiere.

The wider cast includes Andrea Riseborough as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Daisy Ridley as Emily Cratchit, Ian McKellen as Jacob Marley and Arthur Conti as the young Ebenezer — a line-up mixing established British screen talent with younger stars, and a measure of how much Paramount is investing in the film as the opening act of the 2026 festive season.

Speaking on the red carpet, Depp told Extra that he "owes" his fans for standing by him "through thick and thin" — a brief but pointed acknowledgement of the supporters who have followed his career through the legal battles and professional exile of recent years.

West, meanwhile, told Deadline that he and Depp had bonded over a shared love of Dickens' A Christmas Carol and a mutual admiration for Alastair Sim's performance as Scrooge in the 1951 film adaptation. Depp told Extra that Sim's 1951 Scrooge remains, in his view, the definitive screen version, but that he had wanted to find a different way into the character rather than imitate it.

The premiere capped a carefully staged rollout. Just over a week earlier, on Sunday 1 November, Depp hosted an invitation-only special screening at the Whitby Hotel in New York City, attended by Riseborough, Tillman, West and guests including Hayley Atwell, Britt Lower, Kyle MacLachlan, Patti Smith and Shaboozey, according to Page Six. The following day, he surprised crowds at Bryant Park's Christmas Market in New York, appearing in character as Ebenezer Scrooge, according to USA Today. In July, Depp had made a surprise appearance in full Scrooge costume at San Diego Comic-Con, where the first footage was shown.

Paramount is selling the film with the tagline "The name you know, the story you don't," and describes Depp's Scrooge as "deliciously unpleasant". The film runs 1 hour and 55 minutes and is rated PG-13 in the United States and 12A in the United Kingdom, positioning it as a festive outing families can attend together while still carrying the gothic edge West — director of A24's X trilogy, Pearl and MaXXXine — is known for.

Illustration: A gothic Victorian London street in the snow, evoking the world of Dickens' A Christmas Carol that Ti West's Ebenezer reimagines.

Background

Ebenezer is the latest retelling of a story that has rarely been out of circulation since Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol in 1843 — the tale of a bitter, miserly businessman visited on Christmas Eve by the ghosts of his past, present and future. Adapted for stage and screen dozens of times, from Alastair Sim's beloved 1951 film to the Muppets, its endurance is the film's greatest asset and its greatest risk: everyone already knows how the story ends, so a new version has to justify itself on tone, performance and atmosphere alone.

West's answer is to lean into the gothic horror that was always latent in Dickens' ghost story. The film is described as a dark, blackly comic reimagining rather than a straight horror film: the trailer leans as hard on comedy as on gothic gloom, and the spirits arrive in earnest amid fog, gaslight and snow, with Scrooge played broader and more grotesque than in the reverent adaptations of the past.

Principal photography began in January 2026, filming in London and Dublin, with the Historic Dockyard Chatham among the locations used. The production is one of the first films boarded by Paramount after the studio's 2025 acquisition by Skydance, and it carries a reported budget of $38 million.

For Depp, the film is freighted with significance beyond its box-office prospects. It is his first major-studio wide release since 2018's Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and his first mainstream Hollywood feature since the divorce from Amber Heard and the legal proceedings that followed, which left him for a period effectively shut out of studio filmmaking. Ebenezer is therefore widely described as a comeback vehicle, a framing Depp himself has neither embraced nor rejected in public.

The commercial context is equally charged. According to Boxoffice Pro, the film was projected in October to earn between $25 million and $35 million domestically during its opening weekend. More recent tracking, cited by SlashFilm on 4 November from Box Office Theory, puts the opening in a lower range of $17 million to $24 million — a cooling that leaves the film with real work to do beyond its opening weekend.

The early critical picture is, for now, deliberately incomplete. Paramount held press screenings in New York and London and allowed attendees to post brief reactions on social media, but full reviews remain embargoed until noon on Thursday, 12 November, according to reports. The first reactions have been mixed-to-positive, according to Variety. Several early viewers placed Depp's Scrooge alongside the great screen interpretations of the role — Alastair Sim, Michael Caine and George C. Scott were all invoked — while others found the film uneven, praising its star performance and production design but questioning its editing and its balance of horror and comedy. Even among sceptics, the near-universal point of agreement is that Depp himself is the film's anchor.

The film opens in the United States and the United Kingdom on Friday, 13 November, with screenings in Australia and Brazil beginning a day earlier, on 12 November. Paramount is releasing it widely, including in Dolby Cinema, 4DX and D-BOX auditoriums. It arrives in a crowded corridor: Godzilla Minus Zero and The Cat in the Hat open the week before, David Leitch's How to Rob a Bank opens on the same day, and The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping arrives on 20 November.

Why It Matters

The London premiere mattered for reasons that go well beyond one film's opening weekend. For the British film industry, a global premiere in Leicester Square is a statement of intent: the square has hosted the biggest nights in cinema for a century, and Paramount's decision to launch its Christmas tentpole there is a vote of confidence in London as a premiere capital — and in a story that is, after all, a quintessentially London tale.

For Dickens' legacy, Ebenezer is the latest test of whether a story first published more than 180 years ago can still surprise an audience that has seen it retold in every conceivable form. West's gothic, blackly comic version is an attempt to recover the strangeness of the original, in which the ghosts are genuinely frightening and the stakes are a man's soul.

For Johnny Depp, the stakes are the most personal of all. At 63, he remains one of the most recognisable movie stars in the world — a 2026 study by the National Research Group, cited by USA Today, ranked him seventh worldwide among actors audiences most wanted to see in a new theatrical release — yet he has spent the better part of a decade outside the studio system that made him. A successful Ebenezer would demonstrate that a star can return to the mainstream on the strength of a performance rather than a franchise.

Finally, the premiere underscored the peculiar power of the Christmas film as a cultural institution. Every year, a handful of new festive releases compete to join the small canon of films audiences return to each December. Ebenezer is plainly aiming for that canon.

Illustration: A miserly Victorian gentleman before a grand fireplace, haunted by ghostly figures — an artist's impression of Scrooge's Christmas Eve reckoning.

What Happens Next

The immediate focus now shifts to Thursday, 12 November, when the review embargo lifts at noon and the first full critical verdicts will appear, just hours before Thursday-night preview screenings begin. Those reviews will set the tone for the opening weekend.

On Friday, 13 November, Ebenezer opens in cinemas in the United States and the United Kingdom, with Australia and Brazil having opened the day before. Box-office watchers will judge the Friday numbers and Saturday family turnout against its projected range.

Depp's own schedule continues beyond the film. He is set to star in Lionsgate's supernatural thriller Day Drinker, due next spring, playing a mysterious passenger aboard a private yacht who becomes entangled with a bartender played by Madelyn Cline and a dangerous criminal portrayed by Penélope Cruz, according to USA Today.

For audiences, the simplest question remains the one that has followed every adaptation of Dickens' novella since 1843: is this Scrooge worth another visit? Leicester Square, on a cold Monday night in November, answered with applause and falling snow. From Friday, cinemas around the world will get their chance to answer the same question.

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FAQ

When did Ebenezer have its global premiere?

Ebenezer held its global premiere on Monday, 9 November 2026, at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London, with Johnny Depp, director Ti West and co-stars including Rupert Grint, Tramell Tillman, Sam Claflin, Ellie Bamber, Charlie Murphy and Henry Lloyd-Hughes in attendance, according to Deadline.

When is Ebenezer released in cinemas?

The film opens in cinemas in the United States and the United Kingdom on Friday, 13 November 2026, including Dolby Cinema, 4DX and D-BOX screens. Screenings in Australia and Brazil begin a day earlier, on Thursday, 12 November.

Who stars in Ebenezer?

Johnny Depp stars as Ebenezer Scrooge, with Rupert Grint as Bob Cratchit, Tramell Tillman as the Ghost of Christmas Present, Andrea Riseborough as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Sam Claflin as Fred, Daisy Ridley as Emily Cratchit, Ian McKellen as Jacob Marley and Arthur Conti as the young Ebenezer. Ti West directs from a screenplay by Nathaniel Halpern, and Emma Watts produces for Paramount Pictures.

What are the first reactions to Ebenezer?

Early reactions from press screenings in New York and London, where attendees were allowed to post brief responses on social media, have been mixed-to-positive, according to Variety, with Depp's performance as Scrooge singled out for praise even by viewers divided on the film as a whole. Full reviews remain embargoed until noon on Thursday, 12 November, according to reports.

Is Ebenezer Johnny Depp's first major film in years?

Yes — Ebenezer is Depp's first major-studio wide release since 2018's Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and his first mainstream Hollywood feature since the legal proceedings that followed his divorce from Amber Heard. In the intervening years he worked mainly in European independent cinema, including the French-language drama Jeanne du Barry.

Sources

• Deadline, via KZK101 — "Johnny Depp & Ti West Land In A Chilly London For 'Ebenezer' Global Premiere," 10 November 2026 — kzk101.com/johnny-depp-ti-west-land-in-a-chilly-london-for-ebenezer-global-premiere/
• USA Today — "How Johnny Depp is making his big Hollywood comeback," 9 November 2026 — usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2026/11/09/johnny-depp-hollywood-comeback/92655539007/
• Haute Living — "Johnny Depp Stars as Scrooge at the Ebenezer London Premiere," 10 November 2026 — hauteliving.com/2026/11/johnny-depp-ebenezer-london-premiere-scrooge/802156/
• Just Jared — "Johnny Depp & Rupert Grint Join Their Co-Stars at 'Ebenezer' Global Premiere in London!," 9 November 2026 — justjared.com/2026/11/09/johnny-depp-rupert-grint-join-their-co-stars-at-ebenezer-global-premiere-in-london/
• Page Six — "'Ebenezer' London premiere red carpet: Johnny Depp, Rupert Grint, Ellie Bamber and more," 9 November 2026 — pagesix.com/2026/11/09/photos/ebenezer-london-premiere-red-carpet-johnny-depp-rupert-grint-ellie-bamber-and-more/
• Shortlist — "Ebenezer 2026: Johnny Depp, Ti West, What to Expect," 5 November 2026 — shortlist.watch/blog/ebenezer-johnny-depp-ti-west-what-to-expect