Sam Mendes’ ambitious The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event is close to filling out its cast roster, with an Emmy Award-winning star being eyed to play Yoko Ono. Featuring Barry Keoghan, Paul Mescal, Harris Dickinson, and Joseph Quinn as the four Beatles, the project will see four interconnecting movies told from the perspective of each band member.
While the Beatles movies’ four main cast members were first announced in April at this year’s CinemaCon, recent days have seen the announcement of a handful of new supporting cast additions, including Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney and Mia McKenna-Bruce as Ringo Starr’s first wife, Maureen Starkey.
Per Variety, Mendes is currently circling Shogun star Anna Sawai to tackle the role of Ono opposite Dickinson’s John Lennon. Additionally, Sex Education and The White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood is also reported to be in contention to play British model and George Harrison’s first wife, Pattie Boyd.
Despite the deals not being officially closed, the real-life Boyd recently took to X to celebrate the news of Wood’s potential casting, and suggests that she is looking forward to meeting the actor “at some point in the future.”
Meanwhile, Sawai has long been rumored as a potential favorite to tackle the role of Lennon’s infamous widow, but had previously shot down suggestions that she was involved in the project, suggesting back in March that “a rumor is just a rumor.”
While this latest news potentially seems to settle the question of who will be portraying each of the Beatles’ spouses, there are still several significant figures in Beatles history yet to be announced, including Lennon’s first wife and the mother of his first-born son Julian, Cynthia Lennon.
Nonetheless, if Mendes is able to officially conclude the deals with both Sawai and Wood, he will be well on his way to expanding his already impressive cast roster with actors capable of tackling one of the most ambitious musical biopic projects ever undertaken.
Though it is also interesting to note that the casting process has seemingly prioritized selecting the actors responsible for playing each of the band’s wives ahead of other key roles, such as The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein, and earlier band members Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe.
As such, this latest spate of casting news would seem to indicate that Mendes’ movies will also look to delve into each of the Beatles’ personal lives, and how their relationships intersected with their time as some of the world’s most famous and sought-after musicians in The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event.
Source: Variety and Pattie Boyd/X