Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Dick Van Dyke, Emily Mortimer, and Ben Whishaw, make way: Angela Lansbury has joined the cast of Disney’s Mary Poppins sequel, Mary Poppins Returns. Set 20 years after the original movie, the movie follows the adventures of three new Banks children in Depression-era London. Dick Van Dyke initially dropped the news that Lansbury would make an appearance in a December interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “This one supposedly takes place 20 years later and the kids are all grown-up,” Van Dyke said. “It’s a great cast — Meryl Streep, Angela Lansbury and that guy [Lin-Manuel Miranda] from Hamilton.” Now, the news is official: Lansbury will be playing the Balloon Lady, according to Deadline. The character is from P. L. Travers’s original books. Rejoice! We’re getting the very British Mary Poppins sequel we deserve.
