Emily Blunt will replace Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins Returns, a sequel Disney is developing to their 1964 classic set for release on Christmas 2018.
With Disney, Blunt recently played the Baker's wife in their 2014 adaption of the musical Into the Woods. She earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress for the role. The director of Into the Woods, Rob Marshall, is helming the Mary Poppins sequel with Finding Neverland and Life of Pi scribe, David Magee, writing the screenplay.
The screenplay will be based on P.L. Travers' original Mary Poppins stories and will be about a grown-up Jane and Michael Banks (and Michael's three children) in Depression-era London being visited by their old nanny after a loss.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator and star of the Broadway musical Hamilton, will play a new character, a street lamplighter named Jack. Miranda wrote music for Disney's upcoming animated musical Moana.
The sequel will be a musical with Marc Shaiman writing a score and Scott Wittman and Shaiman writing the songs. The two created the music for the Broadway musical Hairspray.
“I am truly humbled and honored to be asked by Disney to bring P.L. Travers’ further adventures to the screen," Marshall said, "The iconic original film means so much to me personally, and I look forward to creating an original movie musical that can bring Mary Poppins, and her message that childlike wonder can be found in even the most challenging of times, to a whole new generation."
Blunt will next be seen in The Girl on the Train coming out Oct. 7. After, she has the animated movies Animal Crackers, the My Little Pony movie and Gnomeo & Juliet: Sherlock Gnomes.