With filming now close to wrapped up on Mary Poppins Returns, the follow-up to the 1964 Disney original based on P.L. Travers' books, more imagery from the sequel has begun to appear. Check out some new pictures of the film, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly
Into The Woods' Rob Marshall has is directing the film, working from a script by David Magee that draws on material from Travers' other Poppins novels. Set roughly 20 years after the first film, the story this time finds Mary (played this time by Emily Blunt) headed back to the Banks family in Depression-era London to find that her charges Jane (Emily Mortimer) and Michael (Ben Whishaw) Banks have now grown up. Michael has three children of his own, and they all need a little help re-discovering the joy in life after a personal loss.
She'll have the aid of lamplighter Jack (played with typically theatrical ability by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who in his picture seems to be channelling Les Miserables) and cousin Topsy (Meryl Streep). Colin Firth, Angela Lansbury and Julie Walters are all part of the cast for this one, with original Mary co-star Dick Van Dyke popping up for a gor-blimey cameo.
This follow-up has a lot of weight to carry on its well-dressed shoulders, and the real test will come with how its songs work (provided this time by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman). "The bar is so high for this," Marshall tells EW. "But to be able to walk in the footsteps of this beautiful story about a woman who brings magic to this family that’s looking for wonder and hope and joy in their lives… I feel a great responsibility and reverence every day. We all feel it. We’re just lifting it up to get there with the right intentions behind it." Mary Poppins Returns will be out in the UK on 21 December, 2018, and then Christmas Day that year in the States. For more on the movie, head to EW's site.
Hamilton* Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda Joining Emily Blunt In The New *Mary Poppins