Beatles Biopic Wigs Are ‘Still a Work in Progress’ After Fans Compare Them to ‘Halloween Costumes’

Help! The Beatles biopic is now deep into production, but a source tells Examiner that there are still a few problems to figure out, including the wigs, which are already getting major backlash online.

Photos of Paul Mescal, Barry Keogan, Harris Dickinson and Joseph Quinn recreating the iconic Abbey Road album cover for the four-part film — in which they play Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison respectively — in London on Sunday, August 16 sent fans of the Fab Four into a tizzy.

“Oh god. The facial hair is all wrong and that wig on Barry looks tragic,” commented a user on X. “Looks like Halloween costumes,” wrote another X user.

Director-producer Sam Mendes “isn’t losing his cool about this just yet,” reveals the source. “He has no problem with taking advantage of Sony’s in-house special effects company to use gentle CGI to get all the hairstyles right in post-production. He has done that kind of tweaking on his films in the past.”

Still, “he’s not doing his actors any favors by exposing their seemingly unfinished looks to the public with the outdoor shoots they’ve been doing lately,” the source admits. “There’s only so much negative attention this strange, expensive project can take before it all collapses like a soufflé.”

Mescal, 30, “is the one actor in the ensemble who is doing his best to use his own hair as much as possible, but he is still in wigs and has a fake beard for large parts of the movies,” says the source, and Keogan, 33, “has grown his hair out, but it’s only appropriate for the very late stages of The Beatles’ story, 1969 or so onward.”

Dickinson, 30, and Quinn, 32, “are in wigs for 100 percent of their time in each of the films and they’re spending hours every single day having fake hair glued on and knitted in,” the source reveals. “It’s all still a work in progress and, yes, these guys still look weird more days than not.”

However, “Sam will get there,” the source says of the Oscar-winning filmmaker, 61. “Remember, he still has another 18-plus months of work on these films.”