Sam Mendes Has Found His Beatles

Sam Mendes introduced the actors he’s cast in his four (FOUR?) Beatles biopics yesterday at CinemaCon 2025. Harris Dickinson (Babygirl) will play John Lennon, Paul Mescal (Gladiator II) as Paul McCartney, Barry Keoghan (Saltburn) will be Ringo Starr, and Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things) will play George Harrison.

This is as good a cast as any Beatles fan could hope for. That band was lightning in a bottle, possessing levels of charisma we haven’t seen the likes of since they broke up in 1970. But four movies? That’s too much. They were complicated men who changed the face of rock and roll forever. We’ve been dissecting their lives and careers for as long as I can remember. How much deeper do we need to dig?

I don’t want to be sick of the Beatles or any of these actors, but I feel like we’ll all be by the time these films are released, “in proximity to each other” in April 2028. I rarely say, “This movie should be a television series.” But maybe this is one of those times.

Anyway, here’s The Beatles. I hope Barry has an umbrella.