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Sam Mendes’ The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event has added four actors to its cast in crucial roles from Beatles history. Morfydd Clark will play Cynthia Lennon, John Lennon’s first wife. Farhan Akhtar will play Indian composer Ravi Shankar. Lucy Boynton plays the actor and Paul McCartney’s girlfriend, Jane Asher. Harry Lawtey plays original Beatles bass guitarist Stuart Sutcliffe.
These supporting cast members join the film’s version of the “Fab Four”: Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harrison Dickinson as John Lennon, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison. Each of the four films will tell the story from a different member of the band’s perspective.
The roles in this latest casting announcement are crucial because they represent people intimately familiar with The Beatles in their early days. John Lennon met Cynthia Powell at the Liverpool College of Art. The two were married in 1962, after Cynthia became pregnant with their son, Julian. They remained married until John became more involved in the London art scene, where he met Yoko Ono. He left Cynthia in 1968 the couple divorced soon after.
That’s about the same stretch of years during which McCartney dated Asher. They met in 1963 and the relationship inspired several of the songs McCartney wrote for The Beatles (“And I Love Her”, “We Can Work It Out”, “You Won’t See Me”, “I’m Looking Through You”, “What You’re Doing”, “Things We Said Today”, “For No One”). The two became engaged, but the couple split in 1968, reportedly after Asher discovered McCartney in bed with American screenwriter Francie Schwartz, with whom McCartney would then enter a relationship.
The Beatles Films Cast Key Roles
Sutcliffe is one of several people sometimes referred to as the “Fifth Beetle.” Another Liverpool College of Art student, Sutcliffe, left the Beetles early on to pursue painting. However, he and Lennon are credited with coming up with the band’s name, as both were fans of Buddy Holly’s band The Crickets and of band names with double meanings.
Shankar was a virtuoso Indian sitarist whose talent was world-renowned. Shankar’s music influenced Harrison, and the two became friends, with Harrison’s love of Shankar’s work leading him to incorporate Indian instruments into The Beatles’ music, giving them a much increased presence in popular music and culture.
Other members of The Beatles cast include the band members’ four eventual spouses: Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney, Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono, Aimee Lou Wood as Pattie Boyd, and Mia McKenna-Bruce as Maureen Starkey. James Norton will play the band’s manager, Brian Epstein, while Harry Lloyd will play producer George Martin, both of whom, like Sutcliffe, are sometimes called the “Fifth Beatle.”
All four installments of The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event are expected to debut in theaters in April 2028.
