Just last week we saw the first trailer for Emma Watson’s Beauty and the Beast reboot. Disney isn’t stopping the revivals there -- today, the Mouse House confirmed that another animated classic, Mary Poppins, is getting the live-action treatment as well. Mary Poppins Returns is coming to a theater near you December 2018.
Perhaps even more intriguing than Disney’s new project is the talent they’ve enlisted to help bring it to life. It was known that Emily Blunt was in talks to star in Mary Poppins Returns, but the casting of Lin-Manuel Miranda is a major coup for the big-budget sequel. Miranda, the star and writer of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway smash hit, Hamilton, is beloved in the theater world and on the cusp of achieving A-List fame. Mary Poppins Returns should take Miranda to even greater heights in terms of popularity and influence, and Disney was smart to capitalize on his success.
Blunt will star as the eponymous character, while Miranda is reportedly playing a new character -- a street lamplighter named Jack. Rob Marshall, director of Disney’s hit musical Into the Woods, will helm Mary Poppins Returns.
Variety has reported the synopsis of Mary Poppins Returns : 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 arrives in theaters Christmas Day 2018.
