Pre-release comparison checked November 4, 2026. Contains spoilers for Dickens’s novella.
Johnny Depp’s Ebenezer follows the premise of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol closely. Scrooge still faces the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, and familiar characters such as Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit and Belle are in the film. Director Ti West has confirmed one addition, a scene with Marley alive, while the October trailer turns Scrooge’s visit to his own grave into a more physical scare. The trailers and interviews show how the film handles parts of the story. How closely it follows Dickens’s ending remains open ahead of its U.S. theatrical release on November 13, 2026.
Ebenezer vs. A Christmas Carol at a glance
| Story detail | Dickens’s novella | What we know about Ebenezer |
|---|---|---|
| The haunting | Marley warns Scrooge that three spirits will visit him. | Ian McKellen plays Marley, and the October trailer shows Scrooge confronted by the spirits of Past, Present and Future. |
| Jacob Marley | Marley is dead when the book opens. Readers meet him as a ghost. | West confirmed that McKellen also appears in a scene with Marley alive. |
| Scrooge’s past | The Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge his younger self and the moment Belle ends their engagement. | Arthur Conti plays young Ebenezer and Ellie Bamber plays Belle. Paramount’s cast list confirms both characters. |
| Scrooge’s grave | The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come points Scrooge toward a neglected grave bearing his name. | The October trailer shows Scrooge being buried alive. |
| Scrooge’s redemption | Scrooge raises Bob’s wages and helps his family. | Paramount describes a second chance for Scrooge. The exact closing scenes remain unconfirmed in the materials cited here. |
Read Dickens’s text at Project Gutenberg · See Paramount’s cast and synopsis · Radio Times trailer coverage
What Ebenezer keeps from Dickens
In the 1843 novella, each spirit gives Scrooge a different way to look at the life he’s built. Christmas Past takes him back to his lonely school days and his broken engagement to Belle. Christmas Present brings him into the home of his clerk, Bob Cratchit, where he sees how the family gets by and learns what may happen to Tiny Tim. Christmas Yet to Come shows him a future in which his own death scarcely troubles anyone.
Paramount keeps that journey through past, present and future in its synopsis. Andrea Riseborough plays the Ghost of Christmas Past, Tramell Tillman plays the Ghost of Christmas Present, Rupert Grint plays Bob Cratchit and Sam Claflin plays Scrooge’s nephew Fred. The casting of Belle and a younger Ebenezer also leaves room for one of the book’s sharpest moments. Belle sees how thoroughly the fear of poverty has come to govern the man she planned to marry. Dickens gives Scrooge a history that helps explain why he clings to money, even as the ghosts make him face what that choice has cost other people.
The clearest change is a scene with Marley alive
Dickens opens with “Marley was dead: to begin with.” He tells us that Scrooge was Marley’s business partner and sole mourner. Later, in a memory of Belle’s household, her husband mentions hearing that Scrooge’s partner is dying. The first time readers encounter Marley directly, he’s wearing the chain he forged through his choices in life.
West told Entertainment Weekly that the film gives McKellen a scene as the living Marley. That creates a chance to see the man Scrooge went into business with and then meet him again as the ghost who warns Scrooge where that way of life leads. West also described Tillman’s Ghost of Christmas Present as impatient and conscious of how little time he has. Dickens gives that spirit a midnight deadline, so the performance builds on a detail that’s already on the page.
Is the movie scarier than the book?
The October trailer makes the graveyard scene more physical. Dickens has Scrooge read his own name on a neglected headstone and beg the silent spirit for a chance to change. The trailer shows him being buried alive. On the page, the terror is in recognizing the name on the stone and realizing how little his death matters to anyone. The trailer gives that fear a physical form.
West told Entertainment Weekly that Marley frightened him as a child and that he wanted to bring out the story’s supernatural dread. Dickens gave him plenty to work with. One of the book’s most disturbing images comes when the Ghost of Christmas Present reveals two emaciated children called Ignorance and Want. They give Scrooge a glimpse of the human suffering he has spent years dismissing. How much space the film gives that side of the story is still an open question.
Should you read A Christmas Carol before seeing Ebenezer?
The film’s premise is easy to follow on its own. If you read the novella first, pay attention to what Scrooge does when he wakes up. He sends the Cratchits a turkey, joins Fred for Christmas dinner and raises Bob’s wages. Those gestures show how Dickens measures Scrooge’s change. The grave frightens him into imagining a different life. The way he treats Bob the next day shows whether he’s begun to live it. That’s the part of the adaptation to watch once the film opens.
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Find a copy of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol on Amazon or read the original free at Project Gutenberg.
For more holiday reading, see our favorite Christmas books.
Frequently asked questions
Is Johnny Depp’s Ebenezer based on a book?
Yes. Ti West’s Ebenezer adapts Charles Dickens’s 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, with Johnny Depp as Ebenezer Scrooge.
Who plays Jacob Marley in Ebenezer?
Ian McKellen plays Scrooge’s former business partner, Jacob Marley. Ti West confirmed that the movie includes a scene with Marley alive.
When does Ebenezer come out?
Paramount lists Friday, November 13, 2026, as the U.S. theatrical release date.
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