According to director Ridley Scott, Gladiator II may be the last time he gets to work with Paul Mescal for a while.
Scott, 87, seemingly confirmed casting rumors that Mescal, 28, will play Paul McCartney in a series of upcoming biopics about The Beatles at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles on Tuesday, December 10, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
When asked during a panel if Mescal will appear in his upcoming movie The Dog Stars, Scott stated: “Yes. Maybe. Paul is actually stacked up, doing the Beatles next. So I may have to let him go.”
Mescal has been heavily rumored to portray McCartney, 82, on the big screen since Sony Pictures and filmmaker Sam Mendes announced plans to make four movies about each of The Beatles members — McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — earlier this year.
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“I’m honored to be telling the story of the greatest rock band of all time, and excited to challenge the notion of what constitutes a trip to the movies,” Mendes, 59, said in a February 20 press release about the films, one of which will be told from each of the members’ point of view.
The studio has not officially confirmed any casting for the movies, though actors such as Harris Dickinson and Charlie Rowe have been rumored to play the late Lennon and Harrison, respectively. (Lennon was murdered at age 40 in 1980 while Harrison died of cancer at age 58 in 2001.)
Mescal, for his part, addressed the casting speculation in an interview with Entertainment Tonight last month. “It would be an incredible story to be attached to. The fact that Sam Mendes is attached to direct, like truly, it would be a dream come true,” he told the outlet before shutting down casting confirmation. “No, no, no — we’re not going there.”
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While Scott appeared to break news of Mescal’s casting, Starr, 84, gave Barry Keoghan his stamp of approval to portray him in the biopic movies. “I think it’s great. I believe he’s somewhere taking drum lessons, and I hope not too many,” he told Entertainment Tonight last month.
Potential casting updates about The Beatles biopics come one month after the legendary band scored Record of the Year and Best Rock Performance 2025 Grammy nominations for their final single together, “Now and Then.” Released in November 2023, the single used artificial intelligence to extract Lennon’s vocals from a 1970s demo of the song.
“When we were in the studio, we had John’s voice in our ears,” McCartney told BBC Radio 1 at the time, per Billboard. “So you could imagine he was just in the next room in a vocal booth or something and we were just working with him again, so it was joyful. It was really lovely, you know, because we hadn’t experienced that for a long time, obviously, and then suddenly here we were working with ol’ Johnny.”
