Johnny Depp Returns to the Screen as Scrooge in Ebenezer
Johnny Depp stars as Ebenezer Scrooge in Ebenezer, a Paramount adaptation of A Christmas Carol and his first studio film since his court battles with Amber Heard. Its marketing leans on his comeback, and critics and commentators are divided on the approach.
Johnny Depp returns to the screen as Ebenezer Scrooge in Ebenezer, a new Paramount adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. It is his first studio film since his court battles with ex-wife Amber Heard.
The film casts Depp in a family-friendly festive role, with Sir Ian McKellen, Rupert Grint and Daisy Ridley among the co-stars. It explores Scrooge's backstory. Dickens's ghosts become zombies, and his London is a dark, violent place filled with predators and danger.
A comeback as the marketing hook
The first trailer went online in July and made Depp's return its main theme. Captions read: "He brought us Jack Sparrow, Edward Scissorhands, and The Mad Hatter." Another said: "This Thanksgiving, the master of misfits returns."
Thirty seconds in, Depp gurns at the camera and purrs, "It's good to be back."
Not everyone is cheered by the pitch. Maureen Ryan, author of Burn It Down: Power, Complacency and a Call for Change in Hollywood, called the comeback theme "tasteless and off-putting, to say the least". Paramount has been approached for comment.
Many viewers responded warmly on YouTube. "Great to see him back, I'm absolutely seeing this day one," read one typical comment. An article by Emily Lawford in the New Statesman was headlined: "Johnny Depp has made his comeback, so Me Too is truly dead."
The legal backdrop
In November 2020, Depp lost a libel case in England against the UK's Sun newspaper, which had labelled him a "wife beater". The judge ruled the article's contents "substantially true". Warner Bros then dropped him from the Fantastic Beasts franchise.
In 2022, Depp sued Heard for libel in the US over a Washington Post opinion article. The jury found in his favor and agreed that Heard had defamed him. The six-week trial aired details of their volatile relationship and drug use.
Depp's supporters say he was wronged. In a 2025 interview he described himself as made "a crash test dummy for #MeToo" by Heard's accusations. In 2023 he said of Hollywood: "Do I feel boycotted by Hollywood? Well, you'd have to not have a pulse not to feel that way."
What Dickens intended
The story's origins add another layer. Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, an instant hit in December 1843, partly to drive radical social change. He had worked in a blacking factory at 12 or 13 after his father was imprisoned for debt.
In the early 1840s he read draft reports from the Children's Employment Commission on child workers in factories and coal mines. He wrote that he wanted a work that would land like a sledgehammer. The children named Ignorance and Want, introduced by the Ghost of Christmas Present, carry that message.
Ryan said Hollywood moves in cycles on reform. "Right now, we are perhaps at the peak of the backlash to industry figures facing even moderate consequences for their actions," she said. Attention now turns to how Ebenezer fares at the box office.
