Watch: Johnny Depp causes mayhem at New York Christmas market dressed as Ebenezer Scrooge

Christmas came early to New York. Unfortunately for everyone involved, so did Ebenezer Scrooge.

Johnny Depp turned up at Bryant Park dressed as Charles Dickens’s famously festive-hating miser, tossing cookies, taking on carol singers and toppling a Christmas tree. Before anyone worries that the actor has developed a personal grudge against the holidays, it was all part of a staged appearance to promote his upcoming film, Ebenezer.

Wearing a black top hat and a heavy dark cloak, Depp stayed firmly in character as he worked his way through the Christmas setting, leaving very little festive cheer intact. A tray of cookies? Onto the ground. Balloons? Popped with his cane. Christmas decorations? Apparently asking for trouble.

Even the carol singers were not spared. As a choir performed “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”, Depp’s Scrooge blew a raspberry and told them to “shut up”. Elsewhere, he knocked ornaments off trees, tore down garlands and kicked aside decorative nutcrackers and Christmas gnomes.

Clips of the performance were shared by the film’s official social-media account, turning Scrooge’s dislike of Christmas into a promotional campaign. The surprise appearance also drew a crowd, with Page Six reporting, via a source, that hundreds of fans gathered around.

A new take on a familiar Christmas grump

Directed by Ti West and written by Nathaniel Halpern, Ebenezer reimagines Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, following Scrooge through a supernatural Christmas Eve reckoning with his past, present and future.

The cast includes Rupert Grint, Andrea Riseborough, Sam Claflin, Daisy Ridley and Ian McKellen, alongside Depp in the title role. Paramount has announced a November 13 theatrical release. A UAE release date has not yet been confirmed.

West has said Depp’s delivery made him a natural fit for the character, pointing to the “musicality” of Dickens’s dialogue and the actor’s ability to find its rhythm.

The Bryant Park appearance follows a similar in-character outing at San Diego Comic-Con in July. Clearly, one public display of Christmas displeasure was not enough.