Film News

Date Set for Mary Poppins Sequel, Starring Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda

The new look at ”Mary Poppins” will feature music by ”Hairspray” writing team Shaiman and Wittman.

Lin-Manuel Miranda with two of the Drama Desk Awards he won for the off-Broadway production of his musical Hamilton.
Lin-Manuel Miranda with two of the Drama Desk Awards he won for the off-Broadway production of his musical Hamilton.
(© David Gordon)

Disney's upcoming film sequel to Mary Poppins will be released December 25, 2018, according to Variety. As previously announced, the movie will star Emily Blunt (Into the Woods) and Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, as Mary Poppins and Jack, a lamplighter in the mold of Bert.

The film reunites the team behind Disney's recent adaptation of Into the Woods, with Rob Marshall directing and John DeLuca and Marc Platt serving as producers.

The new look at Mary Poppins is expected to be set in Depression-era London, 20 years after the first film. It will continue to take story lines from P.L. Travers' children books and focus on the nanny's interactions with the Banks family. The original film musical version of Mary Poppins was released in 1964 and starred Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Disney's Broadway musical version of the story ran at the New Amsterdam Theatre from 2006-2013, led by Ashley Brown as Mary Poppins and Gavin Lee as Bert.

Variety also reports that David Magee will write the screenplay, with Broadway's Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray) penning original songs.