Mary Poppins Returns: Why wasn't Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins Returns?

Emily Blunt has been receiving positive reviews for her version of the famous nanny, who hasn’t aged a day even though the sequel takes place more than two decades after the original. The Banks children are grown up and a new generation of kids are there to be taken care of. With her trusty carpet bag and parrot umbrella, Mary Poppins Returns has all the magic of the original.

Why wasn’t Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins Returns?

Though Dick Van Dyke’s chimney sweep character was replaced by Lin Manuel Miranda’s Lamplighter, the actor still had a cameo in the Disney sequel.

But Julie Andrews did not – in fact, she was not involved in the sequel at all.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the director, Rob Marshall has remained friends with Julie Andrews since choreographing her on Broadway in Victor/Victoria in 1995.

He said a few years ago he and his producing partner John DeLuca broached Andrews about cameoing at her Christmas party, saying: “She had known it was in the works, then we said, ‘We’re doing it.’

“She said, ‘Oh, thank God’. Then we said, ‘And we’re thinking of Emily Blunt.’

“She just threw her hands up in the air and said yes.

“I think a lot of people feel that way about Emily’s work.”

Marshall added: “Julie was incredibly gracious and we talked about it in a very general way but she made it clear right up front.

“She said, ‘This is Emily’s show, and I really want it to be Emily’s show. I really want her to take this and run with it because she will be brilliant.’

“She said it’s time and she said, ‘I know it’ll be cared for,’” Marshall said.

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said of Blunt, “her performing magic can leave you feeling deliriously happy.”

New Zealand Herald’s Francesca Rudkin said: “For family viewing these holidays, Mary Poppins Returns is a must; thanks largely to Emily Blunt’s utterly charming performance.”

The Arts Desk Veronica Lee said: “Blunt makes the role of the magical nanny her own, and her Mary Poppins has a welcome touch less sugar and a smidgen more spice.”

Mara Reinstein for Us Weekly wrote: “Emily Blunt proves herself a sparkling successor to Julie Andrews -with a lovely singing voice to match.”

For Globe and Mail, Kate Taylor wrote: “Blunt is charmingly crisp and superior. Her winning performance makes this new nanny a keeper.”

Mary Poppins Returns is out in cinemas on December 21, 2018.