domingo, 14 de diciembre de 2025

Beatles Biopic Casting: What We Know So Far


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Beatles Biopic Casting: What We Know So Far


Andreas Rentz, Getty Images / Stuart C. Wilson, Getty Images for BFI / S

In April of 2028, the world will receive not just one Beatles biopic, but four of them.

The brainchild of Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes, The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event will roll out over the course of four separate weekends, with each film focusing on a different Beatle.

Both of the two remaining Beatles and the estates of the late ones have given the project the green light, though they are keeping a bit of distance.


"[Mendes] had a writer — very good writer, great reputation, and he wrote it great, but it had nothing to do with Maureen and I," Ringo Starr said to The New York Times earlier this year, referencing his marriage to his first wife, Maureen Starkey, and explaining that he'd been through the script for his own biopic "line by line" with Mendes. "That's not how we were. I'd say, 'We would never do that.' But he'll do what he's doing and I'll send him peace and love."

Meanwhile, both Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan, the actors set to play Paul McCartney and Starr respectively, have spent time with the Beatles in real life.

"He's an extraordinary man," Mescal said about McCartney, speaking to IndieWire in September, "like to spend any time — it's a crazy sentence to say that I've spent time with that man, let alone play him."

And these are just the people playing the Beatles themselves. There's a whole other cast of characters who are slated to be a part of this project, including the Beatles wives, family members and employees. In the below gallery, we're taking you through every cast member we know about so far at the time of this writing.

Beatles Biopic Casting: What We Know So Far
Due April 2028, these are the thespians who will bring the Fab Four's individual stories to life.
Gallery Credit: Allison Rapp

Larry Ellis, Daily Express, Hulton Archive, Getty Images / Kate Green, Getty Images for BFI

Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney
"I'm obsessed with the Beatles at the moment," Irish actor Paul Mescal, who is set to play Paul McCartney, said to Rolling Stone in September of 2025. "It's part of my job, but it's also the way that my brain is wired. I'm excited about listening to music, writing music, absorbing music, going to shows, all of these things — they start with an intensity with the job and then kind of become my personality for a bit." Mescal has two BAFTA Awards and a Laurence Olivier Award to his name, plus nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.


Hulton Archive, Getty Images / Gareth Cattermole, Getty Images

Harris Dickinson as John Lennon
English actor Harris Dickinson has actually met McCartney, which is perhaps the closest he will come to getting to know his character, John Lennon. "My dad's a northerner, from near Liverpool, so he was very impressed," he told The Times in September 2025. Dickinson has appeared in productions like Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019), Where the Crawdads Sing (2022) and Babygirl (2024). In the same Times interview, Dickinson admitted that he'd been in touch with Tony King, an old friend of Lennon's, who advised him not to impersonate the Beatle so much as create a "now" version of him, "like Austin Butler did with Elvis."


Tristan Fewings, Getty Images for BFI / Keystone, Hulton Archive, Getty Images

Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr
Another Irish actor is slated to portray a Beatle: Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. Keoghan has appeared in Dunkirk (2017), The Banshees of Inisherin (2022), Saltburn (2023) and more. Like Mescal, Keoghan has spent some time with his character subject. "I met [Starr] at his house and he played the drums for me," he told Jimmy Kimmel in May of 2025. "He asked me to play, but I wasn't playing the drums for Ringo. ... My job is to observe and take in the mannerisms and study him. But I want to humanize him and bring feelings to it, not just imitate." Starr's son, Zak Starkey, had this piece of advice to offer Keoghan when speaking with NME in June of 2025: "Get a big rubber nose."


Brendon Thorne, Getty Images / Keystone, Getty Images

Joseph Quinn as George Harrison
British actor Joseph Quinn has been featured in Gladiator II and Stranger Things, but this role as George Harrison may top all the others. "My mum's from Liverpool. She's a very Scouse lady. I grew up spending Christmases and stuff there – I love my Liverpudlians," he told Esquire before his casting was made official. "My mum was singing Beatles songs when I was at primary school, so if that was to happen, there would be another level of meaningfulness there."


Antoine Flament, Getty Images / Evening Standard, Getty Images

Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney
The critically-acclaimed Saoirse Ronan, whose credits include The Lovely Bones (2009), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Lady Bird (2017), Little Women (2019) and many more, has been cast as Paul McCartney's first wife, Linda. Paul and Linda were married in 1969 — she was a photographer and the first woman to have a photo on the cover of Rolling Stone — and were together for nearly 30 years before she passed away from breast cancer in 1998.


Tommaso Boddi, Getty Images / Central Press, Getty Images

Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono
Much has said and written about Yoko Ono, Lennon's second wife and the woman to which he was married when he was murdered in 1980, some of it with misogynistic and racist undertones to it. But one thing is undeniable: you simply cannot tell the story of Lennon's life without her. Japanese actress Anna Sawai, who has been working in film and television since she was 11, has been cast as Ono. She also has a musical background, having risen to fame in Japan as one of the lead vocalists of a girl group called Faky.


Andreas Rentz, Getty Images / M. McKeown, Express, Getty Images

Aimee Lou Wood as Patti Boyd
Patti Boyd was one of the '60s It Girls, helping to usher in a new sense of style and overall vibe for women of the time. Boyd met George Harrison on the set of the 1964 Beatles film A Hard Day's Night and they were married two years later. (They divorced in 1977, with Boyd leaving Harrison for Eric Clapton.) Aimee Lou Wood will take on this role — you may recognize her from White Lotus.


Stuart C. Wilson, Getty Images for BFI / Larry Ellis, Daily Express, Hulton Archive, Getty Images

Mia Mckenna-Bruce as Maureen Starkey
Ringo Starr met his first wife, Maureen, a teenage hairdresser from Liverpool, at the Cavern Club in 1962. They were married from 1965 until 1970. She'll be played by Mia Mckenna-Bruce, winner of a BAFTA Rising Star Award.


Eamonn M. McCormack, Getty Images / Michael Fresco, Evening Standard, Getty Images

David Morrissey as Jim McCartney
David Morrissey has spent a lot of his career on stage with esteemed companies like the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre. He's also appeared in two seasons of The Walking Dead and numerous feature-length films. Morrissey will portray Jim McCartney, Paul's father, with whom he had a very close relationship.


Anthony Devlin, Getty Images / YouTube, @TheBeatleCavern

Leanne Best as John Lennon's Aunt Mimi
Here is the most touching casting of the entire film series: Leanne Best as John Lennon's Aunt Mimi. (Lennon's mother died when he was 17, and prior to that, he spent most of his childhood living with his aunt.) If you recognize Leanne's last name, that may be because she is the niece of Pete Best, who was the Beatles' original drummer.


Jeff Spicer, Getty Images / Evening Standard, Hulton Archive, Getty Images

James Norton as Brian Epstein
In 2024 there was a film called Midas Man, an entire production about Brian Epstein starring Jacob Fortune-Lloyd. The reviews were mixed, with The Guardian describing it as "uneven but well-meaning." Now, English actor James Norton has a chance at the crucial role of the Beatles' manager.


Joe Maher, Getty Images / Hulton Archive, Getty Images

Harry Lloyd as George Martin
You may recognize Harry Lloyd from a few episodes of Doctor Who, or perhaps from the first season of Game of Thrones. Here, he'll play the Beatles' producer, George Martin. Often referred to as the "fifth Beatle," Martin produced every single one of the Beatles' albums with the exception of Let It Be.


The Beatles, Sony Pictures / Pace, Getty Images

Bobby Schofield as Neil Aspinall
Neil Aspinall started out as a school friend of McCartney and Harrison's and went on to be head of the Beatles' Apple Corps company. He'll be played by Bobby Schofield, a native of Kirkby, England which sits just outside Liverpool.


The Beatles, Sony Pictures / Pace, Getty Images

Daniel Hoffmann-Gill as Mal Evans
Daniel Hoffmann-Gill is slated to play Mal Evans, who worked for the Beatles as their road manager and personal assistant from 1963 up until their breakup in 1970. (Before that, he was a bouncer at the Cavern Club in Liverpool.) Tragically, Evans was shot and killed during an encounter with police in 1976.


Kate Green, Getty Images / YouTube, @carlwilbon6202

Arthur Darvill as Derek Taylor
Arthur Darvill, who is set to play the Beatles' press officer Derek Taylor, has a background in musical theater having appeared in both Broadway and West End productions like Once and Oklahoma! Interestingly, his musical background stretches to childhood — his father, Nigel, played organ for the likes of Edwin Starr, Fine Young Cannibals and UB40.


Monica Schipper, Getty Images / Frederick R. Bunt, Evening Standard, Getty Images

Adam Pally as Allen Klein
Adam Pally is best known for his comedy roles in things like Happy Endings and The Mindy Kaling Project, but for this series he'll be acting a bit more serious as Allen Klein, the Beatles one-time manager. Of course, if you know anything about the history of British invasion bands, you know that Klein was notorious for improperly handling the finances of both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to his own advantage.




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