Beatles Biopics Filming Update: First Look, New Cast and April 2028 Release
The Beatles Biopics Filming Is Underway
The Beatles biopics filming is well underway, and Sam Mendes’ ambitious project is no longer just an announcement. Cameras began rolling in late 2025, production has continued through 2026 across Liverpool, London and Spain, and audiences have now had their first look at the Fab Four in character. The four films, titled The Beatles: A Four-Film Cinematic Event, are still set for a simultaneous theatrical release on April 7, 2028.
The plan has not slipped. Mendes is still directing four separate films, one from the perspective of each Beatle, released on the same day in what he has called the first bingeable moment in cinema. The original cast also remains intact, with Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr.
First Look: The Fab Four in Character
The first in-character image of the cast appeared in January 2026, shared first on postcards at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts before spreading online. It gave fans their first glimpse of the four actors together as the band, and confirmed the production had moved from preparation into full shooting.
Since then, set photos have kept the project in the public eye. In August 2026, the four leads recreated the famous Abbey Road crossing, with Dickinson leading in a white suit, followed by Keoghan, Mescal and Quinn, in a shoot reported to involve around 80 extras and vintage vehicles. Permission reportedly came only after road closures and bus diversions were arranged.
A Year-Long Shoot Across the UK and Beyond
The Beatles biopics filming schedule is one of the longest of any current production. Mescal has described the project as his job for the whole of 2026, and reports describe the shoot moving in blocks, focusing on certain films at a time while keeping continuity across the four stories. Filming has covered period Liverpool streets, John Lennon’s childhood home at Mendips, London locations and scenes in Spain.
The Liverpool leg wrapped its current schedule in October 2026, with the production understood to be planning a return early next year. That fits a shoot expected to run beyond a year, giving Mendes and cinematographer Greig Fraser time to capture the band’s story from Liverpool to Hamburg, London and America.
New Cast Members Join the Ensemble
The ensemble has also grown beyond the Fab Four. Reports state that Harry Lawtey, Farhan Akhtar, Lucy Boynton and Morfydd Clark have joined the cast as production continues. Their roles are not yet officially detailed.
Behind the camera, the team remains the same as announced: Mendes directs all four films from scripts by Jez Butterworth, Peter Straughan and Jack Thorne, producing through Neal Street Productions for Sony Pictures. Crucially, the project still holds full life story and music rights from Apple Corps and the Beatles, the first time such rights have been granted for a scripted film of this scale, so the real songs will be heard on screen.
Why April 2028 Still Matters
With filming running through 2026 and into next year, the April 7, 2028 release date leaves room for the enormous post-production job ahead: editing four films that share scenes and events, finishing the music, and preparing a simultaneous global launch. Releasing four major films on one day remains almost without precedent, and Sony is betting audiences will treat it as a cultural event, as discussed in our Pixar 2027 slate coverage. That gamble comes as the studio map itself is being redrawn, as covered in our Warner Bros. Discovery split coverage.
There have been bumps along the way. Online reaction to the cast’s wigs drew attention in October 2026, with reports of post-production fixes rather than reshoots. That scrutiny is inevitable for a project this famous.
The bigger picture, though, is momentum. A year ago the Beatles biopics were a cast announcement; now the Beatles biopics filming is in full swing, with a first look out and the April 2028 date intact. When April 2028 arrives, the Fab Four will return to cinemas four times over.
