Johnny Depp’s Hollywood Comeback Thriller ‘Day Drinker’ Finally Gets Its First Teaser

Few actors have navigated quite as public or complicated a road back to mainstream Hollywood as Johnny Depp has over the past several years. After a period defined by intense media scrutiny and career setbacks, fans have watched closely for signs of where his next major English-language studio project might land.

That wait is finally over, and it’s arriving with a genuinely stacked cast to match the anticipation. Lionsgate has spent months building buzz around this particular project, and the studio just gave fans their earliest real glimpse at what’s coming.

The first teaser for ‘Day Drinker’ has arrived, giving audiences their first proper look at Depp starring alongside Madelyn Cline and Penélope Cruz, with a full trailer set to follow tomorrow. Directed by Marc Webb and written by Zach Dean, the film follows a private-yacht bartender who crosses paths with a mysterious onboard guest, only for the two of them to become entangled with a criminal figure in ways neither saw coming.

Depp and Cruz’s pairing marks their fourth collaboration together, following previous work on ‘Blow,’ ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,’ and ‘Murder on the Orient Express.’ That history gives the project an established creative chemistry rarely found in a film still working to establish its own identity.

Cline, best known for her breakout role on Netflix’s ‘Outer Banks,’ takes on the central role of Lorna, the yacht bartender whose life gets upended by Depp’s mysterious character Kelly. Cruz plays Cara Lazaro, the criminal figure who further complicates both of their lives once the story’s central conspiracy begins unraveling.

Early first-look images released ahead of the teaser showed Depp in a dramatically altered appearance, sporting long salt-and-pepper hair, a bushy gray beard, and colored contact lenses, paired with a navy double-breasted suit. That transformation stands in sharp contrast to the actor’s more familiar public image, signaling a deliberate creative departure for the role.

First teaser for ‘DAY DRINKER’ starring Johnny Depp, Madelyn Cline & Penélope Cruz. 🎥 A private-yacht bartender encounters a mysterious onboard guest. They soon find themselves entangled with a criminal figure & connected in ways no one saw coming. Trailer releases tomorrow. https://t.co/c5HKONgHj5

— Film Crave (@_filmcrave) September 23, 2026

The supporting cast rounds out with Manu Ríos, Arón Piper, Juan Diego Botto, and Anika Boyle, with filming having taken place across coastal locations in France, Portugal, and Spain to capture the film’s yacht-bound, international thriller setting.

‘Day Drinker’ represents a notable milestone for Depp specifically, marking a significant English-language studio comeback following the widely publicized fallout from his divorce from Amber Heard and a UK court ruling that led Warner Bros. to remove him from the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ franchise in 2020. Since then, Depp’s larger screen roles have largely stayed outside major American studio productions, making this project’s scale and cast a meaningful shift.

Produced through Thunder Road Films, Infinitum Nihil, and Nostromo Pictures, the film has been positioned by Lionsgate as a genuine awards-adjacent thriller rather than a smaller passion project, further underscoring the studio’s confidence in the finished product.

With the film currently completing post-production and slated for a March 26, 2027 theatrical release, this teaser marks the true beginning of ‘Day Drinker’s’ marketing rollout. Given how much anticipation has already built around Depp’s return to a major studio thriller, tomorrow’s full trailer is likely to generate even more significant conversation.

Between the star-studded cast, Depp’s dramatic physical transformation, and the film’s high-stakes criminal thriller premise, ‘Day Drinker’ looks positioned to be one of the more closely watched releases heading into 2027.

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