Well, it doesn’t seem like we’ll have to wait 54 years for another Mary Poppins outing, as Mary Poppins Returns director Rob Marshall and producer John DeLuca have confirmed that Disney is already working on a follow-up to December’s Emily Blunt-headlined sequel.
“It is early stages but I will say right now that there were eight books, so there’s a lot of great material still to mine,” Marshall tells The Sun. “That’s what we worked from, those incredible eight books of P.L. Travers. So, you know… If there’s a great character and story to tell, why not?”
Producer DeLuca also stated that Emily Blunt is keen on a return as the magical nanny, adding: “Emily does light up when she speaks to me about it. And if the people want it, I think it will happen.”
Mary Poppins Returns has grossed over $262 million at the global box office since its release this past December, but given its production budget of $130 million, it’s perhaps not quite the runaway hit that Disney would have hoped for. Still, let us know in the comments below if you’re excited about the prospect of Emily Blunt returning for a second outing…
SEE ALSO: Can You Imagine That? How Mary Poppins Returns Unfroze My Cynical Heart
Mary Poppins Returns is set in 1930s depression-era London (the time period of the original novels) and is drawn from the wealth of material in PL Travers’ additional seven books. In the story, Michael (Ben Whishaw) and Jane (Emily Mortimer) are now grown up, with Michael, his three children and their housekeeper, Ellen (Julie Walters), living on Cherry Tree Lane. After Michael suffers a personal loss, the enigmatic nanny Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt) re-enters the lives of the Banks family, and, along with the optimistic street lamplighter Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda), uses her unique magical skills to help the family rediscover the joy and wonder missing in their lives. Mary Poppins also introduces the children to a new assortment of colorful and whimsical characters, including her eccentric cousin, Topsy (Meryl Streep).
Mary Poppins Returns is being directed by Rob Marshall (Into the Woods) and sees Emily Blunt (The Girl on the Train) leading the cast alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda (Moana), Ben Whishaw (Spectre), Emily Mortimer (Hugo), Julie Walters (Harry Potter), Colin Firth (The King’s Speech), Meryl Streep (Florence Foster Jenkins), Pixie Davies (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children), Nathanael Saleh (Game of Thrones), Angela Lansbury (Murder, She Wrote), and newcomer Joel Dawson, with Dick Van Dyke set to make a cameo appearance. It will open on December 21st 2018 in the UK and December 25th 2018 in North America.
