More ‘Beatles’ Movies Casting: Sam Mendes Films Find Their Ravi Shankar, Jane Asher, Cynthia Lennon, and Stu Sutcliffe

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Updated, February 11, 2025: Why yes, there are even more people that have played important lives in The Beatles‘ orbit. This is our third update to this story that first cast the women of The Beatles, the band’s producers and inner circle, and now we’ve got a few other fan favorites who figure to have important roles.

Farhan Akhtar (“Bhaag Milkha Bhaag”), a Bollywood star, is joining as Indian composer Ravi Shankar. Lucy Boynton (“Bohemian Rhapsody”) is joining as Paul McCartney’s first partner Jane Asher, Morfydd Clark (“Saint Maud,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”) is joining as John Lennon’s first wife Cynthia Lennon, and Harry Lawtey (“Industry”) is joining as Stuart Sutcliffe, the original bassist for The Beatles.

Since we last got an update on the cast of the four Beatles films, Sony also released some first looks at the band that have sparked plenty of curiosity.

Shankar taught George Harrison how to play the sitar back in 1968 when The Beatles traveled to India, inspiring some of the band’s psychedelic experiments. Asher, an accomplished British actress of stage and screen, was dating McCartney between 1963 and 1968, and they were even engaged, but McCartney would soon date Linda Eastman shortly after they broke up.

Cynthia Lennon was an artist who was married to John between 1962 to 1968 and is the father to John’s first son, Julian Lennon. Sutcliffe is one of the several candidates to be called the “Fifth Beatle,” as he played with the band in Hamburg when they were still a 5-piece band and is even credited with helping to come up with the band’s name, but he died suddenly in 1962.

James Norton, Harry Lloyd, and David Morrissey

Updated, December 4, 2025: The cast of “The Beatles — A Four Film Cinematic Event” is getting better all the time. Sony has announced that Sam Mendes’ four-part biopic has added a new wave of names to its cast, with familiar faces lining up to play many of The Beatles’ creative collaborators and business associates.

Harry Lloyd, a British TV and stage actor known to American audiences for his roles in “The Theory of Everything” and “Legion,” has joined the cast as influential producer George Martin, who aided The Beatles in many of their studio production innovations in the second half of their career. “Happy Valley” star James Norton will play Brian Epstein, the band’s manager who oversaw their rise from Liverpool bar band to the biggest musical act in history before dying at the age of 32.

Other notable additions include David Morrissey as Paul McCartney’s father Jim McCartney, Leanne Best as John Lennon’s Aunt Mimi, Bobby Schofield as road manager Neil Aspinall, Daniel Hoffman-Gill as roadie Mal Evans, Arthur Darvill as publicist Derek Taylor, and Adam Pally as the famously aggressive music mogul Allen Klein.

October 31, 2025: The women behind The Beatles have been revealed. Sony Pictures has announced four new cast additions to Sam Mendes’ four biopic films about The Beatles, confirming whom will portray the love interests for John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

Anna Sawai, best known for her breakout work in “Shogun,” is set to star as Yoko Ono. Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan, as previously reported, is playing Linda (Eastman) McCartney. Mia McKenna-Bruce, known for “How to Have Sex,” is playing Ringo’s partner Maureen (Cox) Starkey. And Aimee Lou Wood, a breakout from the most recent season of “The White Lotus,” is playing Pattie (Boyd) Harrison.

“Maureen, Linda, Yoko, and Pattie are four fascinating and unique figures in their own right — and I’m thrilled that we’ve managed to persuade four of the most talented women working in film today to join this amazing adventure,” Mendes said in a statement.

The four of them join a cast that also includes Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr.

While nearly all four of those women had been rumored to be among the cast for some time, Sony did give us a few more clues as to what other real-life characters might get some prominent roles in the films. The announcement says that actors portraying Cynthia Lennon, Brian Epstein, George Martin, Ravi Shankar, and other key roles will be forthcoming.

“The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event,” as it is officially titled for now, are being directed, written, and produced by Mendes through his Neal Street banner alongside Pippa Harris and Julie Pastor. Alexandra Derbyshire is also producing, and Sony Pictures is making the films in association with the band’s label Apple Corps.

Each of the four films will tell the perspective of a different member of the Fab Four, but any specific details about what periods in their lives are being explored and how much of The Beatles’ history will be seen on screen remains unclear. And in a daring gambit, all four films will be released the same month in April 2028, though specific release plans — like whether they will be one a week or all at once, and which film audiences should see first — are still murky.

Regardless, The Beatles films are expected to be the definitive biopic on The Beatles, with each member (or their estates) granting full life stories and music rights for a scripted film.

Maureen Cox was an early fan of The Beatles who met Ringo Starr at the Cavern Club in 1962. Their romance blossomed quickly, they married in 1965, and had three children together. Linda Eastman was a celebrated photographer when she met Paul McCartney in 1967. There was an instant attraction and McCartney later said, “The first time I saw her, I just knew.” John Lennon first met the Japanese artist Yoko Ono at a London exhibition of her work. Although Lennon was married at the time, he was immediately intrigued by her, and the two eventually became inseparable creative partners for the rest of his life. Pattie Boyd was a successful model when in 1964 she met George Harrison on the set of the Beatles movie “A Hard Day’s Night.” The two began dating and later married, with Boyd sharing Harrison’s growing interest in Eastern mysticism.

McKenna-Bruce is represented by 42 Management, CAA, and Luber Roklin. Ronan is repped by CAA. Sawai is repped by WME, 42, United Agents, and Chris Abramson. Wood is repped by CAA, Independent, and Sloane, Offer, Weber, Dern.