Joseph Quinn is having a moment, breaking over big into worlds where the demigorgons can’t get him.
Today it was announced he’s been cast as George Harrison in Sam Mendes’ Beatles biopics, which will dedicate a separate film to each member and is officially called ‘The Beatles: a Four-Film Cinematic Event’. I’m sure John Lennon would have had something to say about that humble title.
Anyway, worrying pretension aside, the casting is undoubtedly a triumph. With Paul Mescal and Harris Dickinson as Paul and John, you have the hottest British male acting pair around. And with loveable Barry Keoghan as loveable Ringo Starr, that’s a winner too.
But in this context, the George film is probably the least exciting. Joseph Quinn being the least starry name and playing the least sexy Beatle. If the current plan for all four films to be released in the same month - April 2028 - you might imagine that if casual viewers decide to skip one at the cinema, it’ll be this one that suffers.
And yet actually, it is already the dark horse of the biopics. For the buzz around Quinn is now gathering pace in a major way.
Apparently, although - spoiler alert - his character Eddie died in the last season, he may be coming back for the final season of Stranger Things this year. But it’s the film roles outside of teen horror that are putting Quinn in a new light.
Next week sees the release of Warfare, a searingly intense real-time war film in which Quinn plays one of the Navy SEALs caught in an ambush in Iraq in 2006. In a film of standout performances by the likes of Cosmo Jarvis and Will Poulter, Quinn well, stands out. His SEAL Sam is a charismatic figure, shaven-headed and bulked up in a way we’re not used to seeing from Quinn. He is a glowering presence, fully making use of those huge dark eyes of his, which makes the others a little wary, before an attack causes chaos in their hideout and shifts Sam into a state of extreme vulnerability.
Quinn has a star quality for sure, and that will further be shown as he enters the Marvel universe as Johnny Storm the Human Torch in the upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which will also lead into him appearing in the new Avengers films.
In other words, by the time the George film comes around he will be a very famous actor indeed.
And more to the point, he should be very adept at playing the least sexy Beatle who is also perhaps the most complicated Beatle. Let’s not forget that George started in the band at 15, the youngest one, but who then developed into a songwriter the equal of Lennon and McCartney, and also went on a big spiritual journey, leading the rest of the band to India to learn from the Maharishi.
George had a spiky wit. Dazzling gifts. And arguably recorded the best post-Beatles album of any of them with All Things Must Pass. Best of all, he’s an enigma who’s story has rarely been told. You can’t say the same for Lennon.
You can fully expect the George film to more than hold its own. And Quinn? Also the next James Bond?
