Mary Poppins may be returning once again, but it will be a far different one than most audiences are used to seeing. Per Deadline, Shōgun’s Tom Winchester is developing a Mary Poppins TV series that will draw more from the original stories by P.L. Travers rather than the iconic film led by Julie Andrews.
Published in 1934, Mary Poppins sees the Banks family in need of a new nanny when Mary Poppins literally flies in with her umbrella and magic carpet bag and takes the job. The Banks children go on several magical adventures with her as she looks after them and helps repair their family before departing. Travers wrote eight Mary Poppins books in total with the following two seeing her return to help the family before departing for the final time with the remaining books telling other stories during her various visits with the Bankses.
The Mary Poppins in the novels is fairly different as she is often noted for being more mysterious and stern to the children whereas Andrews’ portrayal is much more whimsical. The stark differences led to a lot of tension between Travers and Walt Disney during the making of Mary Poppins as he envisioned it as a more family friendly musical complete with cartoon segments as befitting Disney Studio’s image and legacy. That story was told in the film Saving Mr. Banks which starred Emma Thompson as Travers and Tom Hanks as Disney.
The idea has not gone beyond the pitching stage yet as Winchester is looking for showrunners to lead the show as well as beginning talks with Disney, though the studio does not need to greenlight the series from a rights perspective since Winchester will be specifically adapting the original books rather than remaking the classic film.
Mary Poppins has become one of the most iconic characters in pop culture, inspiring not just the classic Disney musical but plays, parodies and more. A sequel to the original was made with Emily Blunt starring in 2018’s Mary Poppins Returns where she revisits the now grown Banks children to look after their own kids.
