The Beatles Announce New Album With Unheard Tracks Ahead of Disney+ Documentary and Upcoming Biopics
via The Beatles / YouTube
A New Release With Rare Material
The Beatles have confirmed the release of a new album featuring recordings that fans have never heard before, alongside a remastered version of their documentary series. The announcement follows several days of speculation after the band’s official social media accounts teased fans with a cryptic post showing numbers one through four without explanation.
The project, titled Anthology 4, will include 13 unreleased demos and session recordings from the band’s archives. The lineup highlights contributions from Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, and George Harrison, offering another glimpse into the group’s creative process.
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Documentary and Book Project
The new album comes just ahead of a fresh book and documentary series launching this November, produced with Disney+. The original Beatles Anthology documentary has been remastered and rebranded as The Beatles’ Story, In Their Own Words. This version will also include a ninth episode featuring McCartney, Starr, and Harrison in behind-the-scenes footage from the time they first worked on the project.
Producer George Martin’s remastered editions of Anthology 1, 2, and 3 will also be released this November as part of a box set containing 191 tracks. Together, the updated collections will expand the band’s legacy for a new generation of listeners.
Upcoming Biopics
In addition to the album and documentary, four separate Beatles biopic films are in development, each focusing on one member of the group. Paul Mescal has been cast, with Harris Dickinson set to play John Lennon, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison. The films are scheduled for release in April 2028.
The project has the approval of McCartney, Starr, and the estates of Lennon and Harrison. Fans are curious to see whether the films will portray the group’s more unfiltered years, including their early days in Hamburg, where their long nights in the Reeperbahn district shaped their raw sound.
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Stories From Their Early Years
George Harrison once spoke about those years, recalling how the group lived and performed in less-than-glamorous surroundings. He shared a story of losing his virginity in a small backstage room behind a cinema, cheered on by his bandmates Lennon, McCartney, and then-drummer Pete Best. Such stories reveal a side of the band that contrasted with the polished image they later carried worldwide.
McCartney’s Continuing Career
Now 83, Paul McCartney continues to stay active on stage and in film. He makes a cameo in the upcoming Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, which hits theaters this September. The mockumentary will also feature Elton John and the returning cast of the original fictional band Spinal Tap.
Director Rob Reiner recently shared a conversation with McCartney about what drives him and his peers to keep performing into their eighties. “I asked Paul McCartney about this. I said, ‘There’s you, Mick Jagger, Elton John, and you still like to perform. What is it about you guys? Is it that you just love the music? And you love performing?’” Reiner recalled.
“And he says, ‘Yeah. And the drugs,’” Reiner explained, noting McCartney’s joking reply, which also appears as a line in the film.
