“Bingeable” Beatles movies cast revealed: Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan, Harris Dickinson and Joseph Quinn

One. Two. Three. Four! It’s the classic merseybeat intro, and it’s also the amount of films about the greatest band of all time, The Beatles, that are in the works. At the annual CinemaCon industry event in Las Vegas on Monday night, director Sam Mendes revealed his plans for the biopic series — including confirmation of the long-rumoured cast.

And boy, is it stacked — a who’s who of young UK talent. We’ve got Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr.

Mescal's and Keoghan's roles had been let slip previously by director Ridley Scott and Ringo Starr respectively, but the rest of the cast was yet to be locked down.

The four films will release in April 2028, and in an unusual move, all four will come out in the same month, with Mendes describing the move as “bingeable” to appeal to the streaming generation of viewers.

“We’re not just making one film about the Beatles – we’re making four,” Mendes confirmed. “Perhaps this is a chance to understand them a little more deeply.”

“[The Beatles] redefined the culture and stayed with you for a lifetime”, Mendes continued, hailing them as “the most significant band of all time.”

Working on it eight days a week

Mendes has been working on bringing a Beatles biopic to the bigscreen “for years” but “finally gave up” after realising the story “was too big for one film”, and didn’t picture his idea as a small-screen television series.

“There had to be a way to tell the epic story for a new generation,” he told those in attendance at the Las Vegas event.

“I can assure you there is still plenty left to explore and I think we found a way to do that.”

Though there have been many attempts at telling The Beatles story in the past, this is the first project to have not only the blessing of remaining Beatles McCartney and Starr, but also the families of Lennon and Harrison, as well as rights holders Apple. That means we’ll get all the classic songs, as well as the story too.

The Beatles joined forces in 1960, and kicked off a musical revolution across their 10 year career before breaking up at the height of their powers in 1970. The Fab Four weren’t averse to a bigscreen appearance themselves, starring in five films including the swinging-sixties classic A Hard Day’s Night in 1964.

• The 20 best Beatles songs of all time