Disney has officially announced a sequel to the 1964 classic “Mary Poppins” called “Mary Poppins Returns” with Rob Marshall directing and starring Golden Globe Award winner Emily Blunt (“Into the Woods,” the upcoming “Girl on the Train”) and Emmy, GRAMMY, Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Lin-Manuel Miranda (“Hamilton,” “In the Heights”).
The same production team that created “Into the Woods” will be reuniting with this new project as it will be produced by Marshall, Emmy winner and Golden Globe® nominee John DeLuca and Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award® nominee and Golden Globe winner Marc Platt. Oscar nominee David Magee will be writing the screenplay, which will be based on The Mary Poppins Stories by P.L. Travers.
“I am truly humbled and honored to be asked by Disney to bring P.L. Travers’ further adventures to the screen. The iconic original film means so much to me personally, and I look forward to creating an original movie musical that can bring Mary Poppins, and her message that childlike wonder can be found in even the most challenging of times, to a whole new generation,” says Marshall.
More info on the upcoming film was provided by Disney’s press release:
Blunt has been cast as Mary Poppins and Miranda will play a new character, a street lamplighter named Jack. Drawing from the wealth of material in P.L. Travers’ seven additional novels, the story will take place in Depression-era London (when the books were originally written) and follows a now-grown Jane and Michael Banks, who, along with Michael’s three children, are visited by the enigmatic Mary Poppins following a personal loss. Through her unique magical skills, and with the aid of her friend Jack, she helps the family rediscover the joy and wonder missing in their lives.
“Mary Poppins Returns” will be released December 25, 2018.