Ebenezer movie trailer and release date: Johnny Depp's Scrooge hits theaters November 13 — with Ron Weasley as his Bob Cratchit

Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol opens in theaters on November 13, 2026, and the full trailer Paramount released in early October makes the pitch plain: this is Dickens as a ghost story first and a redemption tale second. The director is Ti West, the man behind the X/Pearl/MaXXXine horror trilogy, and The Hollywood Reporter is already filing the movie under "supernatural revenge thriller."

Johnny Depp plays Scrooge, unrecognizable under old-age makeup, and the casting around him is half the story. Rupert Grint — Ron Weasley himself — is Bob Cratchit, the exhausted clerk West has called one of the film's emotional cores. Daisy Ridley plays his wife Emily, Sam Claflin is nephew Fred, and Ian McKellen turns up as Jacob Marley's ghost.

The spirits got prestige casting too

The three ghosts are where the ensemble gets genuinely starry:

• Ghost of Christmas Past: Andrea Riseborough, the first actor cast alongside Depp back in October 2025.
• Ghost of Christmas Present: Tramell Tillman, fresh off his Emmy-winning run as Severance's Mr. Milchick.
• The rest of the ensemble: Charlie Murphy and Ellie Bamber play the Fezziwigs, Arthur Conti plays young Ebenezer, and Nathaniel Halpern (Tokyo Vice) wrote the script.

The production shot in Dublin and London earlier this year with Emma Watts producing. Depp's commitment to the bit extends to marketing: before the first teaser dropped on July 23, he wandered San Diego Comic-Con in full Scrooge costume, in character, then introduced the footage himself.

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The comeback math

This is Depp's first lead in a major studio film since 2018, and Paramount isn't pretending otherwise. The first teaser ended on Scrooge delivering a line that works on exactly two levels:

"It's good to be back."

— Scrooge, in the first Ebenezer teaser, via CBR

One month out, the open questions are commercial, not creative. A horror-tinted Christmas Carol opening on Friday, November 13 — against the Apple TV premiere of 12 12 12 for attention, and six weeks before actual Christmas — is either counterprogramming genius or a seasonal misfire, and Depp's theatrical drawing power in 2026 is an untested number that this release will finally measure.

Previously we wrote: Scarlett Johansson's Ray Gunn opens at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes after its BFI London premiere — the reviews praise everything except the script