“Shogun” star Anna Sawai and “White Lotus” breakout star Amy Lou Wood will play the roles of Yoko Ono and Patti Boyd in director Sam Mendes’ upcoming “Beatles” biopic quadralogy, Variety has confirmed.
Artist and singer-songwriter Ono is John Lennon’s widow and one of his greatest creative influences. Sawai will star alongside Harrison Dickinson as Lennon, who was married to Ono from 1969 until his death in 1980. Lennon was shot and killed by a crazed fan outside his Dakota apartment building on the Upper West Side.
Boyd, a model, became a sensation in 1960s London after meeting George Harrison (played by Joseph Quinn) at the age of 19 on the set of the 1964 Beatles feature film A Hard Day’s Night. They married in 1966. After the Beatles broke up in 1970, the couple’s relationship began to deteriorate and they eventually divorced in 1977. She was then married to Eric Clapton from 1979 to 1989. On October 10, she posted on social media that the prospect of Wood playing her was “big news” and that she was looking forward to meeting the actor “at some point in the future.”
However, Sawai and Wood’s contracts have not yet been signed, and it is unclear whether they will appear. Representatives for Sony Pictures had no comment.
As for the remaining Fab Four, Paul Mescal will play Paul McCartney and Barry Keoghan will play Ringo Starr. Saoirse Ronan was cast as McCartney’s first wife, Linda, who also played in the post-Beatles band Wings. Mia McKenna-Bruce will play Maureen Starkey, Starr’s first wife.
Mendes has produced four separate films, one from the perspective of each member of the Beatles. They would intersect to chart the band’s unlikely journey from Liverpool to the center of world culture and their dissolution in 1970. To paraphrase the tagline: “Each person has a unique story, but together they become a legend.” All four films will hit the big screen in April 2028, and Sony Pictures is calling it “the first bingeable theatrical experience.” The exact release schedule is unknown.
McCartney, Starr, and the families of the late Lennon and Harrison have licensed full rights to the Life story and music for the scripted film, making it the first production licensed by the band.
When the project was announced in early 2025, Mendes said, “I’m honored to be able to tell the story of the greatest rock band of all time and excited to challenge notions of what a movie trip is.”
Sawai, 33, rose to fame in Japan as a singer with the girl group Fakie before breaking out internationally with the Apple TV+ series Pachinko. She won an Emmy Award for her role in the “Shogun” series, becoming the first Japanese actress to win the Best Actress award. Sawai will also appear in David Leitch’s heist film How to Rob a Bank and the crime drama Enemies starring Jeremy Allen White and Austin Butler.
Wood, 31, first starred in Netflix’s teen drama Sex Education, which ran for four seasons from 2019 to 2023. She also starred opposite Bill Nighy in the 2022 film The Living and earned her first Emmy nomination in 2025 for her role in Season 3 of HBO’s The White Lotus.
Alex Ritman contributed to this report.
