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Here's Our First Look at Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins
D23 Expo: Fans Get a Neat Little Preview of Mary Poppins Returns

Mary Poppins Returns (2018)
L to R: Lin-Manuel Miranda, TK, TK, TK and Emily Blunt

D23 Expo: Fans Get a Neat Little Preview of Mary Poppins Returns

Lots of movies were featured on Saturday’s Walt Disney Studios Live Action Films panel at D23 Expo. One of them gave fans a first real look at Mary Poppins Returns, directed by Rob Marshall and starring Emily Blunt as the lead.

The Banks children are all grown up. Michael inherited the house from the original movie and has been raising his three children alone since the death of his wife. Even though Jane is around to support her younger brother, the Banks family is still having trouble paying the bills, no thanks to Colin Firth’s villainous character who happens to be a bank manager.

Enter Mary Poppins to save the day again!

Emily Blunt took the stage alongside Marshall. Lin-Manuel Miranda also appears and played a new song from the film, “Lamplighter Jack.”

Blunt offered insight as to how she made the character her own. “I needed to try to pay homage to Julie Andrews but carve out a new space for myself. And we were very loyal to the books,” said Blunt. Marshall shared, “I was incredibly honored to be approached by Disney about directing a sequel.  This is a brand new original film musical from top to bottom, which is very rare, and it is a wonderful opportunity to create something specifically for the screen.”

Marshall says he was shocked at how quickly everyone said yes to star in the film. The whole cast was thrilled to be a part of Mary Poppins Returns. Blunt previously worked with Marshall on Disney’s Broadway musical adaptation of Into the Woods.

Fun fact: The actual table from the first film was used on the set. It had been kept at Disneyland’s Club 33 for decades, and Marshall had it flown into London for the new movie.

Post-production on Mary Poppins Returns just started; shooting the film just completed a few weeks ago. In other words, no real trailer just yet. However!

The audience was shown a little teaser with a twist. A full orchestra gathered and played original score to exclusive images on the screen.

Shown in the preview are pictures of the Banks children all grown up. Then there’s Lightning Jack flying a kite on a cloudy day. The clouds part and he pulls on a string, revealing Mary Poppins on the other end. Afterward, there were quick shots of dance numbers in the film, including a chimney sweep sequence that’s even bigger than “Step in Time.”

The preview ends with Jane asking Michael “Those things that happened when we were kids? They didn’t really happen, right?” But behind them, Mary is sliding up the stairwell.

Since there’s no official teaser trailer out yet, we peons on the internet have to contend with a nice little poster Disney posted on Twitter.

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Christina E. Janke

Christina is the co-host of “Intro to Geek” on Shauncastic and Editor-in-Chief at Agents of Geek. Her love of all things Mass Effect knows no bounds. She also carries an obsession with comic books, video games, and quirky television shows. Her heroes are Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Gail Simone. She hopes to be just like them when she grows up.