Note: Contains spoilers for Yesterday.
Yesterday – a rom-com telling the story of Jack (Himesh Patel), a singer-songwriter who wakes up in a world in which The Beatles never existed – is, as you would expect, full of alternative realities.
The most surprising – and moving – twist for many viewers is that in Yesterday's Beatles-free world, John Lennon goes on to live a long and happy life, instead of being tragically assassinated aged 40.
But in a conversation with the film's writer Richard Curtis and director Danny Boyle on the Empire Podcast, the former revealed that his original draft featured cameos not just from Lennon, but from all four members of The Beatles.
"When [Jack] first goes to Liverpool, I'd written a long scene where he just goes to a pub and he bumps into George [Harrison] and Ringo [Starr]," explained Curtis.
"It was, I hope, a sweet scene, and they were just two delightful, oldish men who'd once been in a band together [...] music enthusiasts who had never got any further."
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Paul McCartney would also have made an appearance. "At the very end, [Jack] was going to move to the Isle of Wight, to a cottage, and you were going to hear outside his window someone saying, 'Vera, Chuck, Dave!'," Curtis revealed.
"There were going to be three dogs, and Paul was going to be walking them."
However, only the scene with Lennon made the final cut. "It was the scene that had the most meaning, and was in some ways the pivotal scene of the film," said Curtis.
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While we can't say that we wouldn't have liked to see Curtis' re-imaginings of all four Beatles, perhaps the magic sometimes lies in what remains untold.
Yesterday is out now – pick up the official film soundtrack here.
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