Behold this gift bestowed to us by one shrewd photographer! You see before you the glorious Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda on the set of their forthcoming film, Mary Poppins Returns.
Last month, Disney released one official photograph via Entertainment Weekly. We can just barely recognize Blunt, styled as the titular character, by her elegant jaw and cheekbone. While the above photograph only captures a profile, it is indisputably Emily, chin proudly raised beneath that jaunty red hat. And of course we see Miranda, dressed as Jack, the lamplighter. He presumably will portray a Bert-figure, though the character is new.
We can’t quite make out the children in this photograph, but the roles of adult Jane and Michael Banks will be performed by Emily Mortimer and Ben Whishaw, respectively. This fine cast also includes Mary Poppins alum Dick Van Dyke, Angela Lansbury, Meryl Streep, and—hallelujah!—Colin Firth. The film will be set in Depression-era London: Miranda’s costume seems to reflect this time period, but it’s unclear to what extent Mary Poppins’s iconic look will be modified.
We’ll have to take these scraps as we get them, because we’ve still got a long wait ahead of us. The film comes to theaters Christmas 2018.
[Vulture]