Mary Poppins Returns star Emily Blunt hopes the sequel will provide “a spoonful of sugar” for today’s troubled political times.
During an appearance at the Producer Guild of America’s Produced By: New York conference, Blunt said (via Variety): “It’s a divisive time. Here’s a film that could be a great unifier.”
“This is what the world needs. You can feel the acrimony and the bitterness and here’s the opportunity for hope to reappear literally from the skies.”
Director Rob Marshall said he set the film during the Great Depression because he saw parallels between the period of great economic instability and the current climate. He added: “It’s a message of hope in a very dark time, which is what I feel we’re in these days.”
The film follows with a now grown-up Jane (Emily Mortimer) and Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw) living in their old house. After the death of Michael’s wife leaves him as a single father to three children, and throws their world into chaos, the Banks’s former nanny makes a return visit, with the help of lamplighter Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda).
While 1964’s Mary Poppins draws mainly from the first book in P L Travers’s eight-part Mary Poppins series, the sequel focuses on an original story, which draws elements from several of the books.
Mary Poppins Returns will be released in UK cinemas on 21 December.
