Longing For Yesterday: Can Hollywood Carry the Weight of The Beatles?
The world is extremely familiar with the Fab Four–four musicians from Liverpool formally known as the Beatles, who emerged in the 1960s and changed the course of rock ‘n’ roll forever with their innovative songwriting, varied discography, and hit-after-hit reputation. The Beatles set the standard for every artist who followed in their footsteps, which is why the upcoming biopics must showcase the group’s legacy with the utmost respect – but is Hollywood up for the job?
Sam Mendes, the director of Hamnet (2025), 1917 (2019), and American Beauty (1999), is set to direct a series of four separate Beatles films to be released in April 2028. The cinema extravaganza will retell the band’s compelling history, with each film dedicated to the unique perspective of each member. This past January, the first pictures from the biopics were released to the public, showing the cast’s “transformation” into the iconic rock stars.
Casting was announced back in March 2025, featuring Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and none other than Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. Well-known actors Mia McKenna-Bruce, Saoirse Ronan, Anna Sawai, and Aimee Lou Wood have also been confirmed to star as the spouses of The Beatles. Even so, it is not the female cast that fans are critiquing.
Looking back, the eternal rock band is no stranger to the world of film and TV. The Beatles have been featured in countless documentaries and biopics; they’ve even been parodied in several movies. The film Nowhere Boy (2009), starring Aaron-Taylor Johnson as John Lennon, zoomed in on Lennon’s hardships during young adulthood and the formation of the band that would remain relevant decades later. In 2021, the documentary The Beatles: Get Back (2021) premiered on Disney+, displaying real-time footage of the band throughout the making of their last record. Even with the recognition they garnered over the years, no one had ventured to create a proper biopic for the Fab Four—similar to Bohemian Rhapsody or A Complete Unknown—until now.
Source: Strike Tallahassee
