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Ever since Sam Mendes' uber ambitious The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event was first announced last February, we've been looking here, there and everywhere for further word on the Skyfall filmmaker's upcoming quartet of Beatles biopics. Back in April we found out Harris Dickinson, Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan, and Joseph Quinn are set to play the Fab Four in Mendes' movies, and shortly after the films' acclaimed screenwriters were also revealed. Now, the next stop on the long and winding road to these features' release is here: Deadline is reporting that Saoirse Ronan will play the films' Linda McCartney.
With each of these interconnected Beatles biopics set to focus on a different Beatle's life, it comes as no surprise that Ronan is expected to feature most heavily in the McCartney chapter of the Liverpudlian lads' story. The first wife of Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney — a trailblazing band photographer, animal rights activist, and musician in her own right (and, yes, the woman to whom we owe infinite gratitude for bringing actually tasty vegan/vegetarian sausages to the supermarket) — was married to Paul for 29 years, sharing four children with the singer-songwriter and performing alongside him as Wings' keyboardist before her untimely death from breast cancer in 1998. How much of Linda McCartney's story will be told in Mendes' movies — and to what extent she'll feature in the non-Paul centric chapters — very much remains to be seen at this point.
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For Ronan, who'll next light up our screens in satirical school-set thriller Bad Apples, playing Linda McCartney will see the four-time Oscar nominee reunited with her Foe co-star Paul Mescal, who's been getting acquainted with a six-string of late in preparation to play Paul McCartney. Ronan will also be sharing the screen with Harris Dickinson's John Lennon, Barry Keoghan's Ringo Starr, and Joseph Quinn's George Harrison in the films, which have been written by Jez Butterworth, Jack Thorne, and Peter Straughan.
Set to mark the first time that The Beatles and Apple Corps Ltd. have authorised the life stories and music of The Beatles to be used in a film (well, films), here's hoping that The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event proves a hit across the universe and doesn't leave us screaming, "Help!" We'll find out if Mendes' eight days a week working on this pay off when our ticket to ride gets punched in cinemas throughout April 2028.