Colin Firth Cast In Mary Poppins Returns

Kingsman: The Secret Service star Colin Firth is in negotiations to join Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Maranda in Walt Disney Pictures' Mary Poppins Returns.

According to Variety, Firth will play William Weatherall Wilkins, the president of Fidelity Fiduciary Bank.

Blunt will play Mary Poppins,and Meryl Streep is set to play Poppins' cousin, Topsy. Maranda, the star and creator of the Broadway sensation Hamilton, will play Jack, a street lamplighter. Ben Whishaw will play Michael Banks, and Emily Mortimer will play Jane Banks.

Mary Poppins Returns will be directed by Rob Marshall. Marshall will also produce, alongside, John DeLuca, and Marc Platt.

The script for Mary Poppins Returns is being written by Academy Award nominee David Magee. The film is based on The Mary Poppins Stories by P.L. Travers.

Marc Shaiman is composing the score for Mary Poppins Returns, and Scott Wittman is providing original songs.

Firth played Harry Hart in Kingsman: The Secret Service, and will reprise the role for Kingsman: The Golden Circle. in 2016, Firth has had roles in Genius and Bridget Jones' Baby and is a producer on the critically-acclaimed drama Loving.

The original Mary Poppins film debuted in 1964, with Julie Andrews in the lead role opposite Dick Van Dyke. The film was based loosely on Travers' Mary Poppins books and became a musical family classic.

Mary Poppins Returns will be a standalone story set 20 years after the events of the original Mary Poppins movie, in depression-era London. Mary Poppins Returns is said to draw inspiration from the seven books in the Mary Poppins series that were less spotlighted by the original movie.

Mary Poppins Returns is set for theatrical release on Christmas Day, Dec. 25, 2018.