Emmy award-winning Kiwi-Japanese actress Anna Sawai has landed the role of Yoko Ono in the ambitious upcoming four-part Beatles biopic set to hit screens in 2028.
Sawai, who won the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her breakout role as Lady Mariko in Shōgun, will portray the avant-garde artist and musician who became one of John Lennon’s most influential creative partners.
Ono and Lennon married in 1969 and remained together until his death in 1980.
Rounding out the actresses portraying the Fab Four’s partners are Mia McKenna-Bruce as Ringo Starr’s first wife Maureen, Saoirse Ronan as Paul McCartney’s first wife Linda, and Aimee Lou Wood as George Harrison’s first wife Pattie Boyd.
Director Sam Mendes said: “Maureen, Linda, Yoko and Pattie are four fascinating and unique figures in their own right – and I’m thrilled that we’ve managed to persuade four of the most talented women working in film today to join this amazing adventure.”
The lead roles, announced in April, feature Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr.
The four films will each follow the perspective of one member of the Beatles as they climbed from being unknowns from Liverpool in the 1960s to become the world’s largest band prior to their 1970 breakup.
It is the first time the band and their descendants have given music and life rights to a theatrical feature film.
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including a stabbing attack in the UK is not a terror incident, Silver Ferns coach Dame Noeline Taurua speaks for the first time since her stand down, and the King takes one more thing from his disgraced brother (Source: 1News)
