Bah, humbug! Johnny Depp was virtually unrecognizable while making a special appearance at San Diego Comic-Con to promote his Christmas movie Ebenezer.
Depp, 63, surprised fans at the California pop culture convention on Thursday, July 23, by showing up in costume as the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge for Paramount Pictures’ pop-up installation promoting the film.
The legendary Hollywood star’s face was disguised in old-age makeup as he wore Scrooge’s signature top hat and carried a cane.
In one unexpected moment, Depp’s Scrooge even lightheartedly confronted a fan dressed up as his iconic Pirates of the Caribbean character, Captain Jack Sparrow.
Depp’s appearance at Comic-Con took place on the same day that Paramount Pictures released an extended trailer for MaXXXine director Ti West’s adaptation of author Charles Dickens’ 1843 literary classic, A Christmas Carol.
The teaser leans heavily into Depp’s history of physically transforming for his roles by hyping that he “brought us Jack Sparrow, Edward Scissorhands and the Mad Hatter” before revealing him as Scrooge for the first time.
“It’s good to be back,” Scrooge snarls in the clip.
West, 45, has gone for a more Gothic adaptation of A Christmas Carol, leaning into the spookiness of Scrooge being visited by three ghosts from his past on Christmas Eve.
Ebenezer’s star-studded cast features Harry Potter’s Rupert Grint and Star Wars’ Daisy Ridley as Bob and Emily Cratchit, Oscar nominee Andrea Riseborough as the Ghost of Christmas Past and Avengers: Doomsday star Ian McKellen as Scrooge’s vengeful ex-business partner Jacob Marley.
Depp returned to the international stage for the first time since his trial with ex-wife Amber Heard as director of the 2024 biographical drama Modì, Three Days on the Wing of Madness, though Ebenezer is unquestionably an acting comeback for the star. (Depp’s last major Hollywood acting role was in 2018’s Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.)
Earlier this year, McKellen, 87, dropped hints about what fans can expect for Depp’s version of Ebenezer Scrooge — a character that has been played by the likes of Michael Caine, Jim Carrey and Will Ferrell in the past.
“He’s in spankingly good form,” McKellen told Variety in an April interview. “Effervescent, funny, irreverent, serious — all at the same time. It was a bit of a love fest, really. I fell in love with him. He’s very obliging to his fellow actors. [There was] a wonderful feeling on the set.”
McKellen teased his own performance, saying, “It was only six days, but it was well worth it. I play a ghost.”
Ebenezer debuts November 13 in U.S. theaters.
Next up for Depp is the 2027 action thriller Day Drinker, which reunites him with Blow and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides costar Penélope Cruz. Outer Banks’ Madelyn Cline and Elite’s Manu Ríos also feature in the mysterious project about a private-yacht bartender who is dragged into the criminal exploits of a day drinker.
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