2026

In November 2025, Paul McCartney released a new book co-authored with historian Ted Widmer, titled “Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run.” To coincide with its release, a new Wings compilation album, “WINGS,” was issued. The celebration of the Wings legacy continued in 2026. In February, the documentary “Man On The Run“, directed by Morgan Neville, was released on Amazon Prime Video, alongside its accompanying soundtrack album. In May 2026, a dedicated exhibition featuring memorabilia and archival materials opened at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, further highlighting the enduring impact of Wings and Paul McCartney’s work during that period.

Here are what to expect from Paul McCartney in 2026:

• A 50th-anniversary “Wings At The Speed Of Sound” half-mastered vinyl reissue.
• A new album, produced by Andy Watt – See below
• The new BBC documentary, “The Beatle and The Bass” (working title)
• A new Super Deluxe Edition of any Beatles album? “Rubber Soul” SDE was rumoured for some years.
• The second track Paul recorded with The Rolling Stones and Andrew Watt to be released?
• A re-release of Denny Laine’s “Holly Days” album ?
  • From Steve Hoffman Music Forums, October 15, 2023: In an interview for “MonkeeMania Radio”, Liz Hines (Denny Laine’s wife) says that Paul and Denny text quite often and recently were working on a reissue of Holly Days, with Denny making new cover art. It was put on hold when Denny became ill.
  • From Steve Hoffman Music Forums, February 3, 2024: Liz Hines: “Last summer, Denny contacted Paul McCartney to discuss re-releasing his Buddy Holly album, Holly Days. Paul was all for it. He instructed his office to contact me to start the project, but everything came to a halt once Denny got ill in late July and my focus was on him 100%. Eventually, I’ll resume this, as it’s one of my promises I made to Denny.” And also she said: You can hear the remastered ‘It’s So Easy’ from Denny’s Holly Days album here: Celebrating Music’s Greatest Stars – Buddy Holly – Listen To Me – BBC Sounds

The following projects are likely dead, so the likelihood they will surface again in 2025, is low, but who knows?

• Another release in the Archive Collection series? The long-rumoured “London Town” / “Back To The Egg” reissues would close the re-release of all Wings records.
• The Charlie Lightening documentary – See New Paul McCartney documentary in the works
• “It’s a Wonderful Life” musical – From Paul McCartney | News | You Gave Me The Answer – 23 Questions for 2023: “Musicals are difficult things to put together, but I think it may be shaping up at last. So, hopefully you’ll get to hear the songs.” However, a December 2024 report by the Daily Mail indicates the project is on hold.

Paul’s new album

I’m doing some more recording. I’ve been recording with a couple of people, so I’m looking forward to doing even more. I’ve started working with this producer called Andrew Watt, and he’s very interesting – we’ve had some fun.

Paul McCartney, From paulmccartney.com, December 30, 2022

Do you have any New Year’s resolutions for 2025?

Here’s one: finish an album! I’ve been working on a lot of songs, and have had to put it to the side because of the tour. So, I’m hoping to get back into that and finish up a lot of these songs. So, how’s about that? ‘My New Year’s resolution is to finish a new album!’

Paul McCartney, From paulmccartney.com, December 22, 2024

Insiders told me that Macca, whose last album McCartney III came out in 2020, has finished 90 per cent of his new album and hopes to have it finished and mastered by the end of the year. A source said: “Paul has been working on the album all year and initially hoped it would be out by the end of this year but as with most things plans change. It’s not quite finished but the majority of the album is done and Paul is really proud of it. As for live shows he’s told his team he wants to tour the UK again, so live gigs next year are also happening.

From The Sun, August 24, 2025

Finally, you’ve dropped some clues about work you’re doing on a new album with the producer Andrew Watt. How’s that all going?

It’s finishing up! We’ve made a lot of tracks that we both like, and so it’s coming to the end of the process. We’re really excited about putting together the new album. The only trouble is, the minute we finish a bunch of songs, Andrew’s so keen that he wants to get onto a new one. We’ll do a jam or something, and we go, ‘Oh, that’s good,’ but while I might be thinking, ‘Yeah, we’ll do that sometime,’ he’s like, ‘No, that’s great! We should finish it up.’ He’s very enthusiastic. I like that. You need that in a producer.

So, yeah, it is finishing up. But, having said that, there’s a couple of new tracks that have just surfaced that we’ve got to finish up and then see if they can make the album. I think we’ve got a lot of nice tracks. I think fans are going to be interested to see what we’ve done.

Paul McCartney – From 2025 “Got Back” tour book

And right now, I have 25 songs that I’m finishing in the next few months, new songs that are interesting. I can hear something, I can hear a piece of music, and think, Oh, I love that, and I’ll incorporate that feeling into a new song. And often, a constant thread through my writing is nostalgia, the memories of things past.

Paul McCartney – Foreword to “Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run”, written in March 2025

I attended a screening of MAN ON THE RUN last night at Loyola University in New Orleans. Scott Rodger, Paul’s long-time manager and part-time New Orleans resident, was in attendance and did a brief Q&A after the film. Of course they talked about his personal recollections and feelings about working with Paul for so long now… And he said nothing about the archive series unfortunately… But here’s what Scott said, verbatim, about future Paul news: “There will be new Paul music in 2026.” “The record’s done.” “The only reason it’s not out already, is Paul took his time with the artwork.” “Paul will be touring later this year. He’s going back to Japan among other places.” “Chrissie Hynde sings some backing vocals on the new record. She and Linda were very close, and she’s still great friends with Paul to this day.”

The information about Chrissie Hynde on the new album actually came from an audience question, the guy said he was a huge Pretenders fan and asked why Chrissie was heard several times in the documentary. Then Scott answered about her friendship with Linda and divulged that Chrissie is on the new album.

Forum resident JMichael – From Steve Hoffman Music Forums – February 10, 2026

Albums released in 2026

Films released in 2026

Concerts, TV & radio shows in 2026

2026 interviews