Ebenezer Scrooge Movie News: Latest Updates & Releases

San Diego, CA - July 23, 2026 - Johnny Depp brought the house down at San Diego Comic-Con Thursday evening with an unannounced walk-on during a panel for the independent holiday drama Ebenezer Scrooge, sending fans and industry insiders alike into a frenzy. The actor, who portrays the iconic miser in the film, emerged onstage following a screening of the movie’s prologue, marking his first major Comic-Con appearance in years. The audience erupted in a sustained standing ovation that delayed the panel’s Q&A session by nearly five minutes.

The film, which premiered on December 24, 2021, with an 8 out of 10 rating on TMDb, has flown under the radar for most of its release history. Directed by Thomas Gauvert, the project was a passion effort shot on a modest budget, and Depp’s involvement had been known only to dedicated fans of the actor’s independent work. Until Thursday, the film had never been promoted at a major convention. Depp’s sudden appearance, wearing a dark suit and silver pocket watch, left many in the room bewildered before the realization set in.

“I didn’t know he was even here,” said panel moderator Lisa Tran, visibly flustered as she adjusted her microphone. “We thought this was just a small screening. This is unreal.”

Depp, who remained characteristically calm, took the seat beside Gauvert and offered a brief, wry smile. “I love this story,” he said, his voice measured but warm. “It’s the same old tale of a man who loses his way and finds it again. That never gets old, especially when you get to play it in a room full of people who still believe in ghosts and redemption.”

The panel, originally scheduled as a low-key discussion about independent film distribution during the holidays, quickly transformed into a freewheeling conversation about Depp’s creative process, the challenges of playing such a towering literary figure, and why he chose a smaller film for his Comic-Con return. Gauvert, who had kept Depp’s attendance a secret even from the convention organizers, described the actor’s commitment to the role as “obsessive in the best way.”

“Johnny showed up on set every day with a notebook of hand-drawn storyboards,” Gauvert said. “He wanted Scrooge’s transformation to feel earned. He would say, ‘I don’t want this to be a cartoon. I want people to recognize themselves in his coldness before they see his thaw.’ That was the whole film’s north star.”

The movie’s plot hews closely to Charles Dickens’s classic novella, following the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge through a single Christmas Eve haunted by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. Depp takes the role with a lean, sharp energy, avoiding the broad caricature many actors lean into. While the film’s 8/10 rating suggests strong critical reception, its limited theatrical release and quiet streaming debut meant it never became a mainstream talking point. That may change now.

“You have to give him credit for showing up here,” said Kyle Morrison, a Comic-Con attendee from Portland who happened to wander into the panel after a Groot cosplay contest. “This isn’t a Hall H mega-movie. This is a room with folding chairs and a coffee stain on the carpet. And he walked in like he’d been invited for dinner.”

Depp also addressed the choice of venue directly. “Comic-Con has always been about the believers,” he said. “The people who dress up, who wait in lines, who carry a love for stories that might not be mainstream. That’s where Ebenezer Scrooge lives. This movie was never meant to dominate the multiplex. It was meant to sit beside you on a quiet night in December.”

When asked about the film’s path to discovery, Depp shrugged and said, “It’s still here. That’s what matters.”

The panel ended with a surprise: Gauvert announced a limited re-release of the film in select independent theaters this coming December, timed to the movie’s fifth anniversary. Depp, for his part, signed a handful of posters and photographed with fans before slipping out a side exit.

For many in attendance, the moment felt like a throwback to an older kind of Comic-Con, when surprise appearances carried real weight and weren’t timed to launch a franchise. “It wasn’t about selling something,” said Tran at the panel’s close. “It was about celebrating something. That’s rare.”

As the crowd filtered out into the cavernous halls of the convention center, the buzz was unmistakable. The miser of all misers, the man who needed three ghosts to change his ways, had become, for one night, the soul of the party.

Source: Variety