Barry Keoghan ‘Taking Drum Lessons’ to Star in Beatles Movie, Ringo Starr Says

Ringo Starr seems to have confirmed that Barry Keoghan will play him in the Starr-centric film in Sam Mendes’ four-part Beatles biopic.

Speaking with Entertainment Tonight this week, the Beatles drummer weighed in when asked about the rumored casting, telling the network, “I think he’s great, I believe he’s somewhere taking drum lessons. I hope not too many.”

While Starr’s remark gives some validity to the Keoghan rumors that had surfaced recently, another source would not confirm the casting based on Starr’s statements. They told Rolling Stone that there still are no deals with any actors.

If Keoghan is in fact tapped for the Ringo role, it’d be the biggest casting of his career so far. The Irish actor starred in Saltburn last year, and he’s slated to co-star alongside fellow Irish actor Cilian Murphy in the upcoming Peaky Blinders film coming to Netflix.

Reflecting the Beatles’ massive influence, Sony Pictures has elected to produce four different films to zoom in on each member of the band, rather than go the more typical biopic route. Mendes, the director behind American Beauty as well as the Bond films Skyfall and Spectre, was tapped to direct all four flicks. They’re expected to arrive in theaters in 2027.

“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 said in a statement back in February.

Beatlemania doesn’t seem to have stopped even 50 years after the band broke up. The Fab Four just earned a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year for “Now And Then,” which was made with artificial intelligence to extract vocals John Lennon recorded on a demo back in the Seventies. It’s been called the last Beatles song.