#Ebenezer is the hashtag attached to Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol, Paramount Pictures’ Ti West–directed reimagining of the Dickens novella starring Johnny Depp as Ebenezer Scrooge. It exploded across X, TikTok and entertainment blogs on July 23, 2026, when Depp made a surprise in-costume appearance on the streets of San Diego during Comic-Con and then crashed Paramount’s Hall H panel — still in full Scrooge prosthetics — to debut the film’s first trailer ahead of its November 13 theatrical release.
Quick Facts
- Film: Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol (Paramount Pictures)
- Director: Ti West (X, Pearl, MaXXXine)
- Starring: Johnny Depp as Ebenezer Scrooge; Ian McKellen as Jacob Marley; Rupert Grint as Bob Cratchit; Daisy Ridley as Emily Cratchit
- US theatrical release: November 13, 2026
- Hashtag ignition event: Depp’s surprise Hall H appearance in-character, July 23, 2026 at San Diego Comic-Con
- Depp’s quoted line at Comic-Con: “It’s good to be back”
- Studio logline: “This November, Johnny Depp is Ebenezer Scrooge. The name you know, the story you don’t.”
Origin
Paramount confirmed Ebenezer in trades in early 2026 and the film had been quietly shooting since spring, but there was no marketing push and no on-camera footage of Depp until Comic-Con week. On July 23, staff-in-the-know posted images of an unrecognisable elderly figure — pale, gaunt, top hat, Victorian frock coat — walking parts of the Gaslamp Quarter. Within an hour, entertainment reporters had confirmed it was Depp in full Scrooge prosthetics for a stunt in advance of Paramount’s Hall H panel. He appeared later that afternoon in the same costume to introduce the trailer in front of the Comic-Con crowd; the hashtag #Ebenezer went from empty to trending on X the same evening.
The Film
West’s film is being pitched as a horror-tinged take on the ghost story that has spawned dozens of straight adaptations. It is his first project outside the X/Pearl/MaXXXine horror trilogy and his first major studio release; Depp, in his first big Hollywood-studio lead since 2018, plays a Scrooge stripped of the cosy, Muppety register the story has acquired since the 1990s. The full ensemble — Ian McKellen as Jacob Marley, Rupert Grint as Bob Cratchit, Andrea Riseborough as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Sam Claflin as Fred, Daisy Ridley as Emily Cratchit, Tramell Tillman as the Ghost of Christmas Present, Ellie Bamber as Isabel Fezziwig, and Arthur Conti as young Ebenezer — is the largest studio cast Depp has fronted since the Pirates franchise.
Notable Moments
- The street appearance — Depp in full prosthetics walking through the Gaslamp Quarter mid-afternoon on July 23. Fan photos hit X and TikTok before any studio image had leaked, which is what gave the reveal its “wait, is that real?” quality.
- The Hall H drop — Depp took the stage in-character, delivered the “It’s good to be back” line, then debuted the first trailer for the roughly 6,000-seat hall.
- The unrecognisable-Depp reaction cycle — the E! and Just Jared “Johnny Depp looks unrecognisable” framing became its own meta-story on Instagram Reels, driving a second wave of hashtag use from users who had missed the live reveal.
Cultural Impact
The Comic-Con stunt is being read as the marketing centrepiece of Depp’s return to the studio system. It is also — because it is Ti West directing — a bet by Paramount that horror sensibility can revive one of the most-adapted stories in Western film. Trade coverage from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline all led with the “surprise return” framing, and the film’s teaser page ballooned into the top trending trailers on YouTube within 24 hours of the Hall H premiere. #Ebenezer joins a small cluster of 2026 hashtags attached to Comic-Con weekend that traded on a single, discrete surprise moment rather than a sustained multi-month campaign.
Sources
- https://variety.com/2026/film/news/johnny-depp-comic-con-surprise-ebenezer-scrooge-1236819764/
- https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/johnny-depp-surprises-comic-con-ebenezer-scrooge-1236654264/
- https://deadline.com/2026/07/ebenezer-trailer-johnny-depp-comic-con-1237002078/
- https://www.justjared.com/2026/07/23/johnny-depp-appears-in-costume-as-ebenezer-to-debut-scrooge-movie-trailer-at-comic-con-2026/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebenezer:_A_Christmas_Carol