‘Mary Poppins Returns’ Cast, Updates: Emily Blunt Thrilled to Take Over Iconic Julie Andrews Role, Lin-Manuel Miranda Reveals More Details

‘Mary Poppins Returns’ lead actress Emily Blunt revealed that she is thrilled to take over Julie Andrews’ iconic role from the 1964 film. Meanwhile, co-star Lin-Manuel Miranda revealed more details on the sequel during a recent interview.

Blunt expressed her excitement on taking over Julie Andrews’ iconic character during an interview with E! News while promoting her new thriller film ‘Girl on the Train’. She said, "I'm learning the songs… We did an incredible workshop of the script a few weeks back. It's so heart racing, so exciting. It's a complete different re-imagining of the whole thing. And I'm scared and thrilled to be in it and it's cool."

She added, "It is my dream… I mean, she's such an iconic nostalgic figure for people. So it's a gift to give to my kids that I get to be this generation's Mary Poppins." Blunt has two daughters Hazel and Violet with husband John Krasinksi.

The 33-year old British-American actress is set to play Mary Poppins, a role that Andrews made famous in the 1964 Disney film directed by Robert Stevenson. The original fantasy musical film was released to critical acclaim including an Academy Award win for Andrews. The film was also deemed a massive commercial success after earning $102.3 million at the domestic box office against a production budget of $6 million.

Blunt admitted during a previous interview, ‘When [director] Rob Marshall called me, I felt simultaneously thrilled and frozen with fear. Nobody’s Julie Andrews, so I know that much. So I’m just gonna do my own thing… But Mary Poppins is sort of emblematic of people’s nostalgia in many ways. They’re some big shoes to fill. When I said I was taking it on, my friend said to me, “Wow. You’ve got balls of steel.” I was like, “Don’t say that! It makes it scarier.”

According to Yahoo! Movies, Blunt said that Marshall’s upcoming film will not be featuring songs from the original film. She revealed, “Spoonful of Sugar does not exist in our version; it’s all new music! Get over it guys. There’s a new Mary in town… Hey! No one can out-Julie Julie Andrews, so I’m happy not to do it.”

Joining Blunt in the new cast are Meryl Streep as Mary’s cousin Topsy, Ben Wishaw as Michael Banks, Emily Mortimer as Jane Banks, and Lin-Manuel Miranda as Jack. According to Metro, Miranda is set to play a character reminiscent to Dick Van Dyke’s Bert from the original film. His Jack is a street lamplighter.

During an interview with Good Morning America, Miranda dished on more details of Marshall’s new film. He said, “This takes place about 20 years after the original Mary Poppins film took place. But I get to be around for the adventures with Mary and the kids and sing and dance and do all the fun things. It’s a new story.”

He continued, “There are about eight Mary Poppins books, so what the creative team has done is sort of taken some of the adventures from those. Michael and Jane Banks have grown up, so this has to do with their kids.”

‘Mary Poppins Returns’ is an upcoming live-action musical film directed by Ron Howard and written for the big screen by David Magee. It is produced under Walt Disney Pictures and Marc Platt Productions and is intended as a reimagining of the original 1964 film ‘Mary Poppins’.

It is scheduled to be released on December 25, 2018 in the United States.