Hollywood Can't Stop Gossiping About Who's in the 'Beatles' Quadrilogy

When reporting on projects that have not started filming, it's always best to wait for the official press release if you need confirmation on casting. While some trust IMDb, it's too easy for bad actors to edit the cast lists randomly; there are also last-minute circumstances when an actor needs to exit a project due to unforeseen conflicts, and the production has to scramble to recast. However, Sam Mendes' Beatles Quadrilogy of movies seems to have had most of its cast confirmed, not by the production, but by the people who were in the other productions they're going to give up to star in the four interconnected biopics.

We first reported on this in early December 2024, when Barry Keoghan (Saltburn) was confirmed to play Ringo Starr. Considering Starr himself revealed the casting, it seems safe enough, even though the project refused to confirm anything; as multiple outlets pointed out, the deal had yet to be signed, necessitating keeping officially mum.

However, since then, two more castings have been confirmed... by the writers and directors of the projects they'll be leaving behind. Paul Mescal (All of Us Strangers) was first when his Gladiator II director, Ridley Scott, was asked about Gladiator III. Scott replied Mendes had already filled Mescal's dance card to play Paul McCartney.

With a new year arriving, we have a further confirmed casting by... Bret Easton Ellis. That may seem far-fetched (the author of American Psycho knows what?!); however, follow this gossip chain. Ellis has been involved with movies since the 1980s when his Less Than Zero was adapted; Luca Guadagnino (Queer) is set to remake American Psycho as his next project. Meanwhile, Ellis is also learning to direct and wrote a film called Relapse, which will be his directorial debut — Ellis was inspired and wrote the script for the actor he saw playing Eddie Munson in Stranger Things: Joseph Quinn, who agreed to star.

The first week of the new year brought news that Relapse, which was to start filming in March 2025, lost its lead as Quinn had exited the film. Ellis, who has been podcasting as a day job since the pandemic, talked about it on the subsequent episode: “I think somewhere during that fall, we found out that our leading man Joseph Quinn, who had been dutifully waiting around to make this movie… finally was offered George Harrison in the Sam Mendes Beatles project.”

That only leaves the actor playing John Lennon as a mystery, though with the other three confirmed, scuttlebutt seems convinced that Mendes is going with Harris Dickenson, who currently plays Nicole Kidman’s much younger lover in Babygirl. We hope Dickenson can convince Kidman to confirm his role as the most controversial Beatle since that’s how all his co-stars are doing it.

The four interconnected Beatles Quadrilogy of biopics are supposed to start filming in 2025 and be shot back to back through 2026. The first of the films is slated to arrive in 2027.