Posted in: Movies | Tagged: Angela Lansbury, dick van dyke, disney, emily blunt, lin-manuel miranda, mary poppins, Mary Poppins Returns

Angela Lansbury Is The Second 91-Year-Old Actor To Join The Mary Poppins Return Cast

Mary Poppins Returns may be treading dangerous ground in attempting to follow-up what is objectively the greatest movie of all time, but at least their stacking the deck with the right kind of talent to pull it off. Following news that Dick Van Dyke will be in the film (though sadly not reprising his original role as Bert), fellow nonagenarian Angela Lansbury has joined the cast as well. Lansbury will play a character called the Balloon Lady, from the original novels.

In the Julie Andrews role this time around is Emily Blunt, backed by Lin-Manuel Miranda playing Jack, a reboot of Van Dyke's old character Bert since the film will not be a reboot but a sequel set two decades later, and Bert being non-magical, well… let's just say the life expectancy of a lower class man in Edwardian London wasn't great to begin with, before you factor in breathing in all of that chimney soot. On the bright side, the new movie will actually be set in the time of curmudgeon author P.L. Travers' novels, as the 1964 Disney film was set earlier, presumably just so ol' Walt could screw with her some more. Meryl Streep is also a member of the Mary Poppins Returns cast, along with Colin Firth, Emily Mortimer, Ben Whishaw, Julie Walters, Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh, and Joel Dawson.

Mary Poppins holds a special place in the hearts of Bleeding Cool, as it's a little known fact that Mary Poppins was actually the nanny of our own Rich Johnston when he was a child. Directed by Rob Marshall, Mary Poppins Returns hits theaters on Christmas 2018.

Here's a photo of Rich Johnston dancing with penguins, proving our claim from above:

Via Entertainment Weekly

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