In the 54 years since Disney released Mary Poppins, the story of the magical nanny has enchanted and enthralled people over the years to the point that the idea of revisiting a character who’s practically perfect in every way is exactly as daunting as any attempt at perfection should be. 

Does anyone really want to step into the shoes of Julie Andrews, who played Poppins in the 1964 film, even if those shoes come with a matching magic bag?

Emily Blunt did. Or, at the very least, she wanted to step into Mary Poppins shoes to be her version of the P.L. Travers character, who will be back on screen in Mary Poppins Returns, a new adventure set nearly 25 years after the first Poppins took place.

At a set visit at Shepperton Studios in Middlesex, England, Fandango got a look at the new world of Mary Poppins – touring sets and speaking with stars Emily Blunt and Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda, who makes his big-screen debut as London lamplighter Jack about what to expect from the new story.

Blunt looked very the part in Mary regalia (save for a pair of sheepskin Uggs, a nice reprieve from Poppins 1930s Depression-era heels) and said she tried not to get caught up in the realization - the “Oh my God, you are Mary Poppins” of it all.

Instead, “my main focus is just to approach her calmly, as I would any other character, how I would play her, with what I have been given on the page…no one is going to outdo Julie Andrews.”

Her take on the character or not, Blunt was nervous about the many dance numbers and said of director Rob Marshall (Chicago, Into the Woods), “We all laugh a bit about the fact that Rob makes you feel that you could do anything.”

Casting and rehearsals for the film started in September 2016, and on the day of the set visit (held in April 2017, but embargoed until now), cast and crew were shooting one of the most ambitious song-and-dance numbers, involving several dozen lamplighter compatriots to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Jack. Set on a London street at night, the athletic number for the song “Trip a Little Light Fantastic” involved ladders and lampposts of varying heights – a Marshall favorite – as well as acrobatics and bicycle stunts.

A peek at the energy and movement – not to mention the countless stylistic details woven into every set, song, costume and prop, big and small – made it clear that no one on the film is riding on the former Poppins’ coattails, but instead are all working fresh magic with a beloved character.

Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt)

“Mary’s a character who lives outside time,” said producer Mark Platt. “She’s magic. And so she is the one character who actually doesn’t age. She is ever as we know her and will be forever that character.”

Blunt said that the film is one “that is sort of seared into people’s memory, an emblem of their nostalgia in many ways.” Her own memory of the film and character was one of comfort: “That was something that struck me with that person coming in and being so capable and so magical, and just sweeping it all up and making it right.”

Marshall, who said he “fell in love” with Blunt working on his film Into the Woods, said the character Mary Poppins is not only a very upright and strict nanny who is proper but also is “this magical being who is bringing joy.” So underneath the prim exterior is a person with “warmth and an accessibility and joy and humor.” Yet the part also required someone who can sing and dance. Though Blunt was nervous about the dancing, Marshall said he can’t imagine anyone else in the role.

Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda)

An apprentice of sorts of Burt, Dick Van Dyke’s chimney sweep in the original film, Jack – who is a “leerie” or lamplighter – didn’t take on Burt’s day job so much as his multi-facetedness. “There’s a great opening scene in the [first film] where Burt is playing six instruments and singing a song. … I think Jack apprenticed to him and – I just picture a little mini-Burt running around after him. He sort of grows up and doesn’t lose that spark. That’s what Burt and Jack share - they don’t lose the imagination that comes with childhood.”

Miranda exudes his obvious optimism in real life – from the day of the set visit, when several attending reporters noted his upbeat demeanor to posts on his very inspirational but never schmaltzy Twitter account. He’s perhaps the ideal choice for a character who brings light in the darkness. He called being in the sequel “a dream-come-true moment for the kind of dream you didn’t have the audacity to have.”

Miranda, of course known for writing and starring in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical Hamilton,  said of going from stage to screen,  “The only real distinct difference is when you finish the musical number and [the audience] applaud[s], and now they won’t applaud for a year and a half.”

Aunt Topsy (Meryl Streep)

Mary Poppins distant cousin lives in an upside-down world, quite literally, as shown to reporters during a tour of Topsy’s home on the set. Various knick-knacks and doodads fill the floor – which is on Topsy’s ceiling. The bohemian, eccentric character borrows style inspiration from 1920s shipping heiress Nancy Clunard and modern-day eccentrics like Iris Apfel, said costumer designer Sandy Powell.

In the books, Marshall points out, there’s a character named Fred Turvy, who always fixes things. He also sees things from a different point of view, “and Mary Poppins explains that sometimes it’s good to see things from a different point of view… a wonderful message for kids.” And apparently, it was a good thing for the filmmakers, who then wrote the part for a woman and cast Meryl Streep in the role.

Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw) and Jane Banks (Emily Mortimer)

Now grown, Michael Banks, the young boy from the first film, is the father of a family and lives on Cherry Tree Lane in the house where he grew up. There’s been a loss in the family, spurring Mary Poppins need to return into Michael’s world, and his children’s, as well as his sister, Jane, the children’s aunt.

Said Platt of whether the grown Bankses remember Mary or not, “All I will say to that is, all of us grown-ups have a tendency to forget some of the magic of our childhood.”

The Banks Children (Joel Dawson, Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh)

Said Blunt of the child stars, “The kids are my main compadres on this. When someone says, ‘hey, you want to take on Mary Poppins?’, I’m like ‘Yeah!’ And then you realize that all of your scenes are with children…It’s been very moving for me to be around them. They have become my closest friends, really.”

The Balloon Lady (Angela Lansbury)

Lansbury makes an appearance as this original character from the P.L. Travers books.

William Weatherall Wilkins (Colin Firth)

Though Firth often appears in nice guy roles, in this case, he plays the villain: the head of Fidelity Fiduciary Bank. Costume designer Sandy Powell said that she enjoyed designing a suave suit for his bad guy who looks good.

Mr. Dawes Jr. (Dick Van Dyke)

Van Dyke, who played chimney sweep Burt as well as the old banker Mr. Dawes in the first film -- is back, playing the son to Mr. Dawes (now the same age as his father was in the first movie).  “I aspire to have that much energy in my life today much less at 91,” Miranda said of his co-star.

How it came to be

“When Disney came to us with this, it was right at a point in the world where John DeLuca and myself, my partner and I, were so desperate to do it for that reason; in order to balance out the world in which we live now, and we have spent three years working on this film,” Rob Marshall said in a recent interview.

Marshall and the producers didn’t want to touch a remake, but rather look for a new way to tell the story, with new material from the P.L. Travers books. “We set the film in the era when the books were originally written, in the ‘30s, London’s Depression era, which coincidentally is 24 years later than when the first film was set, 1910, which then made Jane and Michael Banks older so it was this new general.”

Producer Platt thinks the timing to release the sequel has turned out to perhaps be idea: “It’s interesting, because as the months have evolved and the world around us is slightly crazy what you realize is the magic, the hope, the optimism and the connectivity that Mary Poppins brings as a character to the family and the world around her is really what I think people are yearning for in their lives.”

Check out the new trailer and poster below.