‘Mary Poppins Returns’ Star Emily Blunt Wants to do a Sequel

Mary Poppins Returns star Emily Blunt wishes to reprise the role of the magical and practically perfect in every way nanny in a sequel.

“Yes, I would! I want to be her again. I like being her,” Blunt told CBS News when asked if she would like to see a sequel.

“She’s completely bizarre and unknowable. What I love about her is really what [author P.L.] Travers said about her: ‘In order to fly, you need something solid to take off from.’ And I love that about her. Practical, yet magical.”

Blunt added she sees the character, first played by Julie Andrews in an Oscar-winning performance in the Walt Disney-produced Mary Poppins, as a sort-of superhero.

“But yet, what I really like about her is the great mystery. She doesn’t reveal her inner workings to anybody, so you have no idea who she is, where she’s come from,” Blunt said. “And she’s completely eccentric, batty, weird, funny, very vain.”

The Into the Woods and A Quiet Place star explained she wasn’t intimidated by taking over the role from Andrews, who in recent weeks was revealed to have graciously declined a cameo so as to not detract from Blunt in a true passing of the torch.

“I have to say I was rather stunned, but I know it was an instantaneous ‘yes,’ because come on, it’s like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get to play somebody like her,” Blunt said of accepting the iconic role.

“I called [a friend] and I was like, ‘I’ve just been offered Mary Poppins. I think I’m gonna do it.’ She went, ‘Ooh dude.’ And I went ‘What, what?’ And she goes, ‘You got balls of steel!’ And I was like, ‘Oh, my God!’”

Rob Marshall, who previously directed Blunt in the musical Into the Woods, added it didn’t take any convincing to get Disney on board with casting an actress not known for her singing.

“I thought of her in one second, told them, they said yes in half-a-second,” Marshall said. “There wasn’t even a question, ’cause she sings beautifully.”

Mary Poppins Returns is fairing well with critics and is tracking for a $70 million first week going into Christmas. The film opens December 19.