The Beatles Discography, Before the Sam Mendes Films Arrive
Sam Mendes is bringing The Beatles' story to the screen across four interconnected films, each told from one band member's perspective. With the leading women now cast as Maureen Starkey, Linda McCartney, Yoko Ono and Pattie Boyd, the shape of the project is finally clear.
The Four-Film Format
Four distinct lenses, one for each Beatle:
- John Lennon, played by Harris Dickinson
- Paul McCartney, played by Paul Mescal
- George Harrison, played by Joseph Quinn
- Ringo Starr, played by Barry Keoghan
Theatrical release is scheduled for April 2028. For anyone wanting to trace the recording career before the films arrive, my Beatles Albums in Order Art Print lays the whole thing out in one image.
The Women Cast
Saoirse Ronan as Linda (Eastman) McCartney
Ronan, a multiple Academy Award nominee, plays Linda Eastman, the photographer who met Paul in 1967. She was an accomplished photographer of rock's greatest era before she was anyone's wife, and later a pioneering vegetarian advocate and a musician in Wings.
Her work in Little Women, Lady Bird, Atonement and Brooklyn suggests she can carry the combination of strength and reserve the part needs.
Paul's solo and Wings years are on my Paul McCartney Albums Music Map.
Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono
Sawai, following her Emmy-winning work in Shōgun, takes on one of music history's most scrutinised figures.
Lennon first encountered Yoko at a London exhibition of her work in 1966. They became creative partners, collaborators and activists for the rest of his life. The relationship drew enormous hostility and also produced a body of experimental music and art that is only now being taken seriously.
John's solo catalogue is on my John Lennon Albums Music Map.
Mia McKenna-Bruce as Maureen (Cox) Starkey
McKenna-Bruce, whose performance in How to Have Sex earned wide acclaim, plays Ringo's first wife.
Maureen was an early fan who met Ringo at the Cavern Club in 1962. They married in 1965, at the peak of the band's fame, and she navigated the impossible pressures of being married to a Beatle through the most chaotic years of it.
Aimee Lou Wood as Pattie Boyd
Wood, from Sex Education and The White Lotus, plays the model and muse behind some of the era's best-known songs.
Pattie was already a successful model when she met George on the set of A Hard Day's Night in 1964. Their shared interest in Eastern philosophy shaped the band's most experimental period. She inspired George's "Something", and Eric Clapton wrote "Layla" about her in 1970 while she was still married to George. She and George divorced in 1977, and she married Clapton in 1979.
George's solo journey is on my George Harrison Albums in Order Music Map.
The Four Leads
Harris Dickinson as John Lennon
Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness, The Iron Claw) has the range for both the wit and the cruelty, which is the hard part of playing Lennon.
Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney
Mescal (Normal People, Aftersun, All of Us Strangers) brings the charm, and, on the evidence of Aftersun, the ability to play someone withholding something.
Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr
Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin, Saltburn) plays the drummer whose humour and steadiness held the band together longer than it should have held.
Joseph Quinn as George Harrison
Quinn (Stranger Things, A Quiet Place: Day One) plays the quiet Beatle, whose seeking and melodic instinct produced "Here Comes the Sun" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".
The Women's Perspective
For the first time in a major Beatles film, the women are not scenery. That reflects a genuine shift in how the story gets told: Yoko Ono's art and her scapegoating, Linda McCartney's photography and activism, Pattie Boyd's own account of the period, and Maureen Starkey's experience of early Beatlemania.
What the Films Will Cover
Early Years, 1960 to 1963
- The Hamburg clubs
- The Cavern
- Brian Epstein's management
- The first recordings and Please Please Me
Beatlemania, 1964 to 1965
- The Ed Sullivan Show
- Filming A Hard Day's Night
- The touring years
- Meeting their future wives
Studio Innovation, 1966 to 1967
- Retiring from touring
- Revolver and Sgt. Pepper
- Eastern philosophy and psychedelia
- The Maharishi
Final Years, 1968 to 1970
- India
- The White Album tensions
- Apple Corps
- Let It Be and Abbey Road
- The breakup
You can trace that whole run visually on my Beatles Albums in Order Map.
What Each Film Is Likely to Emphasise
This is my guess rather than anything announced, but the four-perspective structure invites it:
- John's film: the artistic experimentation, the activism, Yoko, and the internal tensions.
- Paul's film: the songwriting, the studio, the leadership friction, and Linda.
- George's film: the Eastern philosophy, the guitar playing, and the experience of being overshadowed by two of the best songwriters alive.
- Ringo's film: the view from behind the kit, and the job of keeping four people in a room.
Why the Story Still Holds
What the Beatles built is the template for modern pop songwriting, studio production, the concept album, the music video and the stadium tour. Every artist since owes something to it. You can follow that influence outward through the Rolling Stones and David Bowie maps.
They remain the best-selling band in history, with more than 500 million records sold.
The Map as a Companion Piece
The films will dramatise the relationships. The map draws them. Just as mapping The Fall showed me how line-up changes shape a sound, the Beatles map shows the creative partnerships, the tensions and the widening cast of collaborators that the four films will spend their running time on.
Sizes and Print Detail
The Beatles Albums in Order Art Print charts all 13 UK studio albums with every credited musician and session guest.
It is a Giclée on 230gsm premium acid-free matte fine art paper, produced in A1 only (594x841mm, or 36x24in in US sizing), because the density of the session credits needs the larger sheet. Supplied unframed or in a black wood frame, from £42.00. There is also a black edition.
Mike Bell Maps began during the Covid lockdown, mapping music history as researched discography visualisations. Each map shows how connection and disconnection between musicians drives what comes out of a studio.
