Barry Keoghan Steps Into Ringo Starr's Shoes on Liverpool's Famous Balcony

Sixty years after four young men from Liverpool stood on the balcony of the city's Town Hall and looked out at tens of thousands of adoring fans, four actors recreated that precise tableau — and the photographs are genuinely striking. According to Just Jared, Barry Keoghan, Paul Mescal, Harris Dickinson, and Joseph Quinn were captured on camera during a Sunday shoot in Liverpool as they brought that landmark scene back to life for Sam Mendes' ambitious, unprecedented Beatles film project.

A Moment Frozen in History

The scene being filmed replicates The Beatles' homecoming on July 10, 1964 — one of the defining images of Beatlemania. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr had returned to their hometown as the most famous band on the planet, greeted by enormous crowds who lined the streets of Liverpool in celebration. The civic reception at Liverpool Town Hall, and the balcony appearance that followed, has since become one of the most reproduced photographs of the era, a visual shorthand for the sheer, overwhelming scale of the band's cultural dominance. Later that same evening, the group attended the northern premiere of A Hard Day's Night at the Odeon Cinema — a film that remains one of cinema's most inventive portraits of modern celebrity.

Four Films, Four Perspectives

Mendes, whose work consistently demonstrates an appetite for layered, formally precise storytelling, is taking an approach to this project that has no real precedent in music biography cinema. Rather than a single, sweeping narrative — the model that has defined everything from Bohemian Rhapsody to Walk the Line — he is directing four entirely separate features, each one filtered through the subjective experience of a different Beatle. Keoghan will inhabit Ringo Starr; Mescal takes on McCartney; Dickinson portrays Lennon; and Quinn steps into the role of Harrison.

The casting across the board reflects an industry trend toward deploying younger, critically respected dramatic actors in prestige music biopics, though the scale of this undertaking dwarfs most comparisons. Barry Keoghan's recent work at TIFF has underscored his capacity for emotionally intricate, physically committed performance — qualities that will surely be tested in a role as culturally loaded as Starr's.

Suits, Moptops, and Abbey Road

The on-set photographs show all four actors in period-accurate suits and the band's now-iconic early-era haircuts, standing together on the Town Hall balcony with a precision that suggests Mendes and his production team are treating the reconstruction of archival imagery with considerable seriousness. The shoot follows an earlier unit photograph, taken last month, in which the same quartet recreated The Beatles' Abbey Road cover — the crossing on the London street that has arguably become the most imitated album artwork in history. Taken together, these productions stills suggest a project deeply invested in visual fidelity alongside whatever dramatic reimagining each individual film will pursue.

A Historic Rights Agreement

Perhaps as significant as any casting choice is the legal and creative framework underpinning the project. The four films represent the first time The Beatles and Apple Corps have granted full life-story and music rights for scripted narrative features about the band. For decades, the rights situation around the group's story and catalogue made a comprehensive dramatization effectively impossible — a constraint that sent filmmakers toward documentary formats instead. That Apple has now chosen to work with Mendes, and on this unconventional four-part structure, signals real confidence in the director's vision. The four films are currently scheduled to open in theaters in April 2028, a release plan that implies each picture may arrive in relatively close succession. Given the level of anticipation already building from a single afternoon's filming in Liverpool, the wait is likely to feel considerable.

For fans of serious filmmaking, this project sits comfortably alongside other high-profile productions demanding attention in the years ahead — much as J.J. Abrams' work with Tom Cruise on Digger has generated its own sustained industry conversation.

Related on Ni4o: Barry Keoghan's 'Lemonade' Draws Mixed Notices at TIFF Debut