We’re in for a long wait for the four-part Beatles biopic, currently in the works and set for release April 2028. But yesterday Sam Mendes, the Oscar-winning director of the project titled The Beatles—A Four-Film Cinematic Event, gave us a tease of what’s coming, boy band hair and all.
The interconnected movies star some of this generation’s buzziest actors: Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison. In a fun little marketing strategy, postcards offering a first look at the actors as the iconic British band were hidden around a performing arts college in their hometown of Liverpool for students to find. The first-looks show us Mescal, Dickinson, Keoghan, and Quinn fully embracing the swinging ’60s, bohemian, and groovy aesthetics that defined the group.
Across the mammoth filming schedule, the four leads will transform into the instantly recognizable and formidable Fab Four: bowl cuts à la Paul, long and flowing hippie tresses for John and George, the Ringo Starr special shaggy mop-top. A physical transformation is part and parcel of the biopic-sphere and the big awards season swingers: think Timothée Chalamet’s shock of a Bob Dylan ’stache, or Emma Stone shaving her head (and then concealing it, amid all the rumors) for Bugonia.
The story of The Beatles is as much a beauty story as it is one of many era-defining music and pop culture. It all began with Lennon’s and McCartney’s polished, forward-fringed mop-tops, inspired by the flattened down hair of French teenagers at the time and cut by friend Jurgen Vollmer. Hairdresser Leslie Cavendish came on board to start styling the band’s hair, working with them through the ’60s and ’70s to define their sweet but sophisticated look. Paired with suave matching suits, it was instantly appealing to a legion of teenage girl fans. As the band grew stratospherically, their aesthetic shifted with the free-spirited cultural movement: post-Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, it was bye-bye mushroom hair and hello sideburns, ’staches, and flowing tresses. It will be interesting to see what stages of style we’ll meet each Beatle in. Below, a first glimpse:
Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr
Barry Keoghan debuted his own Beatlesmaxxing look at the London premiere of his new film Crime 101. His mussed-up mop-top hairstyle channels Beatles drummer Starr’s look from the very early days of the band, showing his own natural waves just like Starr. Out of context, it’s a toss-up as to whether Keoghan is channeling Beatlemania or Bieber fever. Filming began in November, so he’s had plenty of time to grow out the mop, a marked difference from his last public appearance, where he sported a close crop and soft bangs. Respect for committing to the Beatles bit and forgoing the wig.
Harris Dickinson as John Lennon
Babygirl and Beach Rats actor Harris Dickinson takes on the role of the late John Lennon. From what we can glean from the low-lit postcard picture, he’s captured Lennon with his extra-long shag, which became his signature look. No full beard just yet, so this is likely Abbey Road Sessions and Yoko Ono-era John. In 1970, Lennon shaved his head, but it remains to be seen how much Dickinson will embrace all of John’s striking images.
Joseph Quinn as George Harrison
George Harrison’s thick, collar-length hair was always notably much more voluminous than his bandmates , so Stranger Things’s Joseph Quinn might have had some help from a wig or some well-placed extensions here. With floppy curtains and a center part, his wavy ’do reflected his countercultural thinking, getting longer and wilder as he embraced spirituality and mysticism.
As one colleague asked, “Joseph Quinn beachy waves hair tutorial, when?”
Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney
Sure, Paul McCartney cycled through the wild mullets and (sometimes fake!) moustaches, but in the annals of pop culture, Paul will always be defined by the bowl cut. Here, we see Hamnet’s Paul Mescal embrace early-era Paul, with his forward-brushed bangs and scissor-cut sides. (Mescal has been on the awards season circuit with a remarkably different ’do, so it looks like he opted out of a McCartney-esque cut in favor of a wig.) Let it be, let it be, remains McCartney’s own grooming mantra, having embraced his silver gray hair in recent years.
While we wait for a Beatles biopic trailer, we have one simple plea: A request for Vogue Beauty Secrets four-parter. Joking, but also, not really.
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