With the cameras already rolling, Mary Poppins Returns boasts some solid talent, including Emily Blunt, Ben Whishaw, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Meryl Streep. But director Rob Marshall has added another, as Angela Lansbury is joining the cast.
Returns, which draws from PL Travers' other Poppins books, finds the magical nanny (Blunt) returning to the Banks family in Depression-era London to find that her charges Jane (Emily Mortimer) and Michael Banks (Whishaw) have now grown up. Michael has three children of his own, and they all need a little help re-discovering the joy in life.
Lansbury, no slouch in the musical department herself, is playing a Travers-created character called Balloon Lady who will no doubt get her own chance to warble.
With Colin Firth, Julie Walters and returning Poppins veteran Dick Van Dyke also taking roles, Mary Poppins Returns is scheduled to arrive on 25 December next year.
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