Overview
- Marie Claire reports that Anna Sawai has been cast as Yoko Ono in Sam Mendes’s planned four-part series of Beatles biopics.
- Sawai says she has been actively researching Ono and has been texting Sean Lennon to fact-check Ono’s feelings and memory of events.
- Variety’s reporting, cited in coverage, says all four Beatles films are slated for a simultaneous April 2028 release, though that staging is reported rather than confirmed by the filmmakers in these pieces.
- The principal cast named in the coverage lists Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr.
- Sawai’s casting follows her breakout on Shōgun and an upcoming David Leitch film, and her approach to Ono highlights the challenges of portraying a divisive historical figure and the likely public scrutiny of the films’ portrayal choices.