Johnny Depp becomes Scrooge and creates buzz at Comic-Con: trailer

The Pirates of the Caribbean star is back in Hollywood, and gets an impressive new transformation, for this gothic adaptation of Charles Dickens, which will be released in theaters this fall.

San Diego Comic-Con 2026 is here.

And the first to make the buzz was Johnny Depp. The actor made a very notable appearance at the heart of the event, arriving entirely transformed into Ebenezer Scrooge, the hero of Ti West’s next film. Without ever leaving his character, Depp wandered around the Gaslamp Quarter, passing cosplayers dressed as Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka and Edward Scissorhands. Faithful to the old miser imagined by Charles Dickens, he threw some grating replies at them, going so far as to ask his own incarnations… how they managed to go to the toilet.

The actor then interrupted a conference to present the very first trailer for Scrooge.

Still with the mumbled voice of his character, he greeted the audience with an ironic: “So you have neither work nor life?”

This first trailer reveals a dark reinterpretation of the Dickens classic. Tormented by the terrifying spirits of Christmas, Scrooge is confronted with the mistakes of his past as he continues to spread mischief through the snowy streets, not hesitating to throw snowballs at passersby. From the first images, Depp looks at the camera and says: “It’s good to be back.”

A reply far from innocuous. Beyond the character, it echoes the actor’s return to Hollywood after several years of turbulence. Sidelined by the studios following his legal conflict with his ex-wife Amber Heard, Johnny Depp notably lost his role as Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secretswhere he was replaced by Mads Mikkelsen.

Directed by Ti West, Scrooge also features Rupert Grint, Andrea Riseborough, Sam Claflin, Daisy Ridley, Arthur Conti, Ellie Bamber, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Charlie Murphy, Tramell Tillman and Ian McKellen.

Scrooge will be released in cinemas in France on November 11.