Prepare to step in time and chim your chimerneys once again, for we have some jolly holiday news for you. Disney's forthcoming Mary Poppins Returns has filled a Bert-shaped hole, with the news that Dick Van Dyke will be making an appearance. So perhaps we should now start calling it Meery Pawpins Returns. If we weren't already.
The 91-year-old Van Dyke himself revealed the news to THR. It's not clear whether it's a large role or just a cameo - or even if he's returning to play dancing chimney sweep Bert at all. But, he says, "It's a great cast — Meryl Streep, Angela Lansbury and that guy [Lin-Manuel Miranda] from Hamilton." Lansbury is another new name in connection with the film. The actress wasn't part of the original Poppins, of course, but starred in its sibling Bedknobs And Broomsticks.
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.) And Colin Firth is playing the aptly Poppins-esque named William Weatherall Wilkins, president of Fidelity Fiduciary Bank. That bank was previously run by the very senior Mr Dawes - also played by Van Dyke.
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.