Meet the Stars of the Upcoming Beatles Biopics

Sam Mendes has his John, Paul, George, and Ringo. The actors who will portray the Fab Four in four separate biopics to be released in April 2028 were announced Monday at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, where director Mendes made a surprise appearance alongside his Beatles: British actor Harris Dickinson (Babygirl, Triangle of Sadness), who will play John Lennon; Irish actor Paul Mescal (Gladiator II, Aftersun), who will play Paul McCartney; British actor Joseph Quinn (Gladiator II, Stranger Things), who will play George Harrison; and Irish actor Barry Keoghan (Saltburn, The Banshees of Inisherin), who will play Ringo Starr, per the Guardian.

The involvement of Mescal and Keoghan wasn't a surprise. Last year, Gladiator II director Ridley Scott accidentally confirmed Mescal's role, while Starr suggested Keoghan had been cast to play him and would be "somewhere taking drum lessons." Seemingly relieved there will be "no American actors doing Brit accents," Guardian movie critic Peter Bradshaw is only upset none of the four actors hail from Liverpool, as with the Fab Four. But they appeared up to the task on Monday, reciting from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." "It's wonderful to be here, it's certainly a thrill, you're such a lovely audience, we'd like to take you home with us," they said in unison before taking "a Beatles-style synchronized bow," per the BBC.

Mendes said the four biopics to be released in the same month will offer a new look at a band that "redefined the culture," per the Guardian. The Oscar-winning director said he'd tried for years to make a film about the Beatles but gave up because the "story was too big." Now, across four films, he's found "a way to tell the epic story for a new generation," he said, adding, per the BBC: "Together, all four films will tell the story of the greatest band in history." But "each one is told from the particular perspective of just one of the guys," Mendes said. "They intersect in different ways—sometimes overlapping, sometimes not" and offer a chance to understand the band members "a little more deeply." (More Beatles stories.)