The Beatles Biopics Controversy: Cast Update Sparkes Heated Debates Among Fans
It seems that they won’t come together on this question.
Despite the Fab Four’s massive popularity, Beatlemania wasn’t of much interest for filmmakers for a long time. As for large movie projects about this group, fans have only seen Aaron Taylor-Johnson ’s Nowhere Boy (2009) about John Lennon’s teenage years.
This February every Beatles fan was blown away by the news that Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Skyfall, Spectre) will install the Beatles Cinematic Universe that will include four movies, each told from the perspective of every band member.
More than that, it has been recently reported that the director has already cast the Fab Four actors, and at first glance it seems to be a fan cast.
The biopics will assemble Harris Dickinson (The Iron Claw) as John Lennon, Paul Mescal ( Normal People) as Paul McCartney, Barry Keoghan (Saltburn ) as Ringo Starr and Charlie Rowe (Red Band Society) as George Harrison.
This update has divided the fandom of both The Beatles and these actors, with some part of them being sure that it’s a perfect cast. “OH THEY ABSOLUTELY COOKED,” exclaims X-user @harvv, while the casting of Keoghan as Ringo gets dubbed ‘perfection’.
However, another part of fans is completely against such a cast. Their first claim towards it is that the actors don’t look like the Fab Four at all. “Quick question has Sam Mendes ever seen a picture of the Beatles because…,” says Redditor @lulu_simone.
This complaint was addressed and ruined by the argument that the appearance similarity is not as important as the performances. “These are all very talented actors and I'm sure they will have no trouble doing that,” fairly admits @William_da_foe.
But that’s not the end of the criticism the biopics’ cast is now receiving. “Nothing against them but I am so sick of seeing Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan everywhere omg 😭,” says @AAAFMB. Indeed, last year those two were almost in every post on social media. There are also some doubts regarding Keoghan’s poor accent that was seen in Saltburn.
Probably, it’d be a great decision to cast “perfect unknowns” as the Fab Four, as voiced by @SeaF04mGr33n, but this way the movies won’t clearly attract so much attention.
Nevertheless, it’s too early to make conclusions about the quality of The Beatles’ biopics, as they are scheduled to be released only in 2027. Let’s wait for other updates!
Source: The InSneider