It’s Official: ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ Full Cast and Plot Announced
Production has officially begun on ‘Mary Poppins Returns’, the sequel to the beloved classic about the stern nanny with magical powers. Though it was previously reported that Emily Blunt will play the lead role and that Lin-Manuel Miranda will play a new character named Jack, it’s only now that full details are being released to the public.
Miranda has been in London for the past few months and sharing updates about his stay, and today he retweeted the official casting and production news.
Everybody remain calm.
But this is true. https://t.co/506jMm1x5d— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) February 10, 2017
In addition to Blunt and Miranda, other names joining the cast are Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters, and none other than Oscar winners Meryl Streep and Colin Firth. As if that weren’t exciting enough, Dick Van Dyke – who played the Cockney streetsweeper/chalk artist/chimney sweep in the original movie – will also have a role as bank chairman Mr. Dawes Jr. Disney kids will remember that Dick Van Dyke also played another role in the first movie, that of the terrifying Mr. Dawes Sr.
In “Mary Poppins Returns”, Jane and Michael Banks are all grown up, and Michael already has children of his own. Mary Poppins shows up after Michael suffers a terrible loss, and in her practically perfect way, uses her magic to bring back joy to the family. Fascinating new characters such as Poppins’ cousin Topsy (Streep) and the street lamplighter Jack (Miranda) are also sure to add fun and excitement. P.L. Travers wrote seven other books about Mary Poppins, and the sequel is based on these additional stories.
The movie will be produced and directed by Rob Marshall, the Oscar-winning director of Chicago. David Magee, the Oscar-nominated writer of ‘Life of Pi’, will handle screenwriting duties, with Tony winners Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman (both winners for ‘Hairspray’) set to write all original songs.
The film is scheduled for release on December 25, 2018.
With such a collection of names, and a story that promises to be as heartwarming as the first, can anyone help but feel supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?
