Johnny Depp to Make Major Hollywood Return in Famous Role

Johnny Depp is making a return to the big screen—and he’ll be yelling “Bah, humbug!”

The 62-year-old actor has signed on to play the eponymous role in Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol, a new retelling of the classic 1843 novella by Charles Dickens. It’s the first major film role for Depp after his very public legal battle with Amber Heard.

Most curiously, independent horror filmmaker Ti West (X, Pearl, The House of the Devil) is in the director’s chair. It remains to be seen if this version of A Christmas Carol will be in line with West’s usual gory splatterfests or if he’ll be playing it safe with his first major studio film.

Oscar-nominated actress Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie) has also signed on to the project. Nathaniel Halpern (Legion) wrote the script, and Emma Watts will produce. The film is set to release on November 13, 2026.

A Christmas Carol is one of the most famous stories ever told, with countless adaptations in the past 200 years. The story features Ebenezer Scrooge, a notorious cheapskate who famously hates Christmas, as he is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, Present, and Future on Christmas Eve. The three otherworldly beings show him various moments from his life (and after his life) in an attempt to get him to change his miserable ways.

Oddly enough, this is the second film adaptation of A Christmas Carol announced this year. In June, Warner Bros. announced a big-budget version of the Dickens story from Robert Eggers, who released a holiday-themed horror just last Christmas with Nosferatu. In Eggers’ retelling, Willem Dafoe (who also starred in Nosferatu) will play Ebenezer Scrooge.