Disney has been hitting nostalgic notes in the past few years, with its live-action remakes of animated features. The House of Mouse will go into full sequel territory this holiday season with Mary Poppins Returns, picking up the narrative from the 1964 original. Cherry Tree Lane will be getting some modern touches, including talent like Emily Blunt and Hamilton writer Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Mary Poppins Returns is another star-making moment for Lin-Manuel Miranda, who will be playing Jack the lamplighter in the upcoming sequel. The first trailers have teased Miranda's musical numbers, but it looks like he'll once again be spitting rhymes, and doing some form of rapping in Mary Poppins Returns. As producer Marc Platt revealed:
Wonderful song and dance man, wonderful actor, which is what he's doing in this film. And he inhabits the role of Jack and creates a wholly original character, playing this leerie. And he gets to do all the things that you want to see Lin do. He gets to be charismatic. He gets to bring light into the world. He sings. He dances. And, believe it or not, 1934 music hall style he even gets to do a little rap. It's quite extraordinary.
After going to Washington Heights and revolutionary America, it looks like Lin-Manuel Miranda will be taking his hip hop influence to Mary Poppins Returns. And while he's got big shoes to fill after Dick Van Dyke's Bert, it's clear that Miranda will bring something totally new to the franchise.
Marc Platt's comments come from the set visit of Mary Poppins Returns, which CinemBlend was apart of. They're sure to excite Lin-Manuel Miranda's fans, many of which have their roots in his theater work. The writer/actor brought hip hop to Broadway with his Tony award winning musical In The Heights, which is eventually going to made into a movie of its own. From there, he brought Hamilton to the world, and became a Broadway success story for the books.
Hamilton also focused on hip hop and rap, bringing an ethnically diverse cast together to educate audiences about the founding fathers. It became a national sensation, and gave Lin-Manuel Miranda the platform to work on projects like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Mary Poppins Returns, becoming a good friend of Disney in the process.
The new music of Mary Poppins Returns wasn't written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, but Hairspray duo Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. The pressure is on to deliver musical numbers as satisfying as the original, and the answers will be revealed shortly.
Mary Poppins Returns will arrive in theaters on December 19th. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.
