If there's one person you want involved in a musical project right now, it's Lin-Manuel Miranda, the man who has been taking the Broadway stage by storm with Hamilton. Disney has realised this, and he's now in talks to join Emily Blunt in the Mary Poppins sequel.
Into The Woods' Rob Marshall is directing this one, with a script by David Magee that draws from other books in Poppins author P.L. Travers' range, which expand beyond the original tome across a series that ran between 1934 and 1988. It's been reported that this new film will catch up with the Banks family 20 years after the original, and finds Mary coming to help during the Depression era. While original co-songwriter Richard Sherman has given his blessing to the new film, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman will be the one providing the necessary tunes. And given his background, Miranda will no doubt be helping out on that front, too.
Miranda – assuming his busy schedule actually allows him to confirm he's in – would play Jack, a lamplighter who has echoes of Bert, famously played by Dick Van Dyke in the 1964 original. One word of advice, Mr. M.... Avoid the accent.
This wouldn't represent Miranda's first Mouse House gig: J.J. Abrams brought him aboard to write music (and sing) for Maz Kanata's base in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and he's been composing tunes for the animated Moana, due later this year. Fun fact: he also played Reggie in Disney's The Odd Life Of Timothy Green back in 2013.