New additions continue to be announced to the cast of the highly anticipated official Beatles biopic series being directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Sam Mendes. As previously reported, The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event will see four movies, each told from the point of view of a different Fab Four member, premiering simultaneously on April 7, 2028.
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The showrunners have now revealed the actors who will portray four people who played important supporting roles during different eras in the band’s history.
The new cast members are Morfydd Clark as John Lennon’s first wife, Cynthia; Lucy Boynton as Paul McCartney’s longtime girlfriend, actress Jane Asher; Harry Lawtey as early Beatles bassist Stuart Sutcliffe; Farhan Akhtar as Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar.
Clark perhaps is best known for her role as the powerful elf Galadriel in the Amazon Prime Video series The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power. The British actress also won multiple awards for her starring role in the 2019 psychological horror flick Saint Maude. Cynthia Lennon was married to John from 1962 to 1968.
Boynton appeared in the Oscar-winning 2018 Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody as Freddie Mercury’s one-time fiancée and close friend Mary Austin. Asher dated McCartney from 1963 to 1968.
Lawtey is featured in the popular HBO Max series Industry. He also played Harvey Dent in the 2024 Joker sequel Joker: Folie À Deux. Sutcliffe was a college friend of Lennon’s who played bass with The Beatles from 1960 to 1961. He was just 21 when he died of a cerebral hemorrhage in April 1962.
Akhtar is an award-winning Indian filmmaker, actor, and singer. Shankar was a major musical influence on and friend of George Harrison.
More News About the Beatles Biopics
Some key members of the production team and crew for the forthcoming Beatles biopics also have been confirmed. Among them is Giles Martin, who will serve as executive music producer. Giles, of course, is the son of late Beatles producer George Martin and has worked on various Fab Four reissues.
Other creatives who have joined the production team include cinematographer Greig Fraser and editor Lee Smith. Fraser won a Best Cinematography Oscar in 2022 for Dune. Smith took home an Academy Award for Best Film Editing in 2018 for Dunkirk.
More Details About the Biopics
As previously reported, the four-film Beatles biopic project which was conceived by Mendes, was first announced in February 2024.
According to a press statement, the movies “will intersect to tell the astonishing story of the greatest band in history.”
The project marks the first time that Apple Corps Ltd. and The Beatles have granted the full rights to the band members’ music and life stories for use in a scripted movie. Representing the group are surviving members McCartney and Starr, and the families of the late Lennon and Harrison.
The films will star Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. The first photos of the actors in character as their Fab Four counterparts recently were released.
Many other cast members for the films also have been revealed, including the actresses playing The Beatles’ wives. Saoirse Ronan will play McCartney’s first wife, the late Linda Eastman McCartney. Anna Sawai will portray Lennon’s second wife, Yoko Ono. Aimee Lou Wood will be featured as Harrison’s first wife, Pattie Boyd. Mia McKenna-Bruce will play Ringo’s first wife, Maureen Cox Starkey.
(Photo by Guy Coombs; Photo by Abheet Gidwani/Courtesy of Masala!; Photo by Una Burnand; Photo by Sasha Marro)
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