There are times when a piece of casting just seems to slot in so perfectly, you must think it was decided from the moment the script came into existence. So it is with word from Variety that Colin Firth will be appearing in Mary Poppins Returns.
The story this time around finds the magical Mary (to be played this time by Emily Blunt) returning 25 years after she brightened the Banks family's lives to find that grown children Michael (Ben Whishaw) and Jane (Emily Mortimer) are having fresh issues involving tragedy and a serious lack of sparkle in depression-era London.
Mary will need all the help she can get, enlisting cousin Topsy (Meryl Streep) and friendly lamplighter Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda.) As for Firth, he's playing the aptly Poppins-esque named William Weatherall Wilkins, president of Fidelity Fiduciary Bank.
David Magee wrote the script for this one, working on other material from novelist PL Travers' Poppins books. Rob Marshall is gearing up to direct with the aim of having the movie in cinemas by Christmas 2018.
Firth, who was most recently seen in Bridget Jones's Baby, will next be seen in true-life sailing tale The Mercy, out on 6 January, before he's back (somehow) for Kingsman: The Golden Circle, due out on 16 June next year.