In honor of its 30th anniversary this year, a remastered version of “The Beatles Anthology,” the landmark docuseries about the seminal band’s career, is set to premiere on Disney+ in November with an entire episode’s worth of new, previously unreleased footage.
Featuring retrospective, in-person interviews with band members Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, “The Beatles Anthology” was originally broadcast in November 1995. Expanded versions of the docuseries were subsequently released in home video formats like VHS and LaserDisc in the following years.
Now, the documentary is set to arrive on Disney+ on Nov. 26.
The restored and remastered version of the docuseries will include its original eight episodes, as well as a newly completed ninth installment featuring behind-the-scenes footage taken of McCartney, Harrison and Starr as they came together in 1994 and 1995 to work on “The Beatles Anthology” and reflect on their shared musical journeys.
The restoration and expansion of the series was overseen by the Apple Corps production team, who worked in conjunction with Peter Jackson’s Wingnut Films, Park Road Post and record producer Giles Martin. The latter created new audio mixes for the majority of the music featured in the documentary.
The docuseries is just one part of the multimedia retrospective project that makes up “The Beatles Anthology,” which also originally included a three-volume set of double albums and a book about the band’s history and music. In addition to the documentary’s re-release, the retrospective’s music collection, which was originally curated by longtime Beatles record producer George Martin, is set to be released again on Nov. 21.
This time, the collection will be released as four volumes. Newly restored by Giles Martin, George Martin’s son, the latest version of “The Anthology Collection” will come with a fourth volume comprised of 13 previously unreleased Beatles demos, session tracks and other rare recordings. It will also include new mixes of previous “Anthology” singles “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love.”
A 25th anniversary edition of the “Beatles Anthology” companion book, which features honest recollections and thoughts from all of the band’s four members, will additionally be released on Oct. 14. The 368-page tome is available for pre-order now.
Today’s announcement furthers Disney+’s ongoing investment in Beatles-related content. In 2024, the streaming service released “Beatles ’64,” a feature documentary detailing the band’s first trip to America. Three years earlier, Disney+ made waves with “The Beatles: Get Back,” Peter Jackson’s 8-hour documentary, which utilized unused and recycled footage from director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 Beatles documentary “Let It Be” to comprehensively document the making of the the band’s 1970 album of the same name.
