Sean Ono Lennon Jokes Emma Stone Should Play Dad John Lennon in Upcoming Beatles Movies: ‘The Next Obvious Step’

“I do think with someone as famous as my dad, it’s very hard to cast a film like that,” Ono Lennon said

Emma Stone and John Lennon. Photo:Frazer Harrison/Getty; Bettmann Archive/Getty

Sean Ono Lennon is making an inspired casting wish for the upcoming Beatles movies.

While speaking with Variety on the Oscars 2024 red carpet ahead of Sunday’s Academy Awards, Sean, the younger of John Lennon’s two sons, joked that Sunday night’s Best Actress nomineeEmma Stone should play his father in the upcoming four-part biopic about his father’s band.

“Well I’m hoping that Emma Stone might consider it, because she did such a good job in Poor Things and I think if you’re going to reach like that as an actor, the next obvious step is to really go for it,” Sean, 48, said, when asked who should play John, who died at 40 in 1980.

Sean is at Sunday’s 96th Oscars ceremony as a writer and executive producer of War Is Over!, an animated short film based on the music his father John and mother Yoko Ono created together during their partnership. The nominees in that category also include Letter to a Pig, Ninety-Five Senses, Our Uniform and Pachyderme.

“I’m not much of a filmmaker – I guess I am now – but I do think with someone as famous as my dad, it’s very hard to cast a film like that,” Sean shared of the task filmmaker Sam Mendes faces in casting the Fab Four for the recently announced Beatles biopic project. While speaking on the red carpet, Sean cited 2007’s La Vie en Rose and 2004’s Ray as examples of music biopics that were highly successful.

Sean Lennon and Kemp Muhl on March 10, 2024.Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

“So you can pull it off, and I think we’re going to do a good job, so I’m excited,” he added to Variety.

Filmmaker Mendes announced on Feb. 20 that he will direct four movies about the Beatles —  Paul McCartney, Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — through each member’s perspective of the group’s groundbreaking career in the 1960s.

“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, 58, said in a statement at the time. No casting announcements for the movies have been made yet; all four films are expected to release in 2027.

George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.getty

The 96th annual Academy Awards are airing on ABC at 7 p.m. ET from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.