Lin-Manuel Miranda Shares Details About MARY POPPINS RETURNS, Will Host SNL

I haven't seen Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway sensation Hamilton, and even though people love the soundtrack and go on and on about how great it is, I'm purposefully trying to avoid hearing anything from the show until I get to experience the play in person for myself. But I know enough about the man behind the show to be excited that he's playing a character in Mary Poppins Returns, Disney's upcoming sequel to the classic 1964 hit.

Miranda sat down with Variety and talked about his role in the movie:

"It's straight up a sequel. Michael and Jane Banks have grown up, and they find themselves in their own spot, and Mary Poppins comes back to take care of Michael's kids. I play a lamplighter named Jack who sort of grew up apprenticing to Bert. So I know if Mary Poppins shows up, it's gonna get awesome. I perform that function in the movie, of saying: 'Y'all don’t know about Mary Poppins. When Mary’s around, cool sh– happens.'"

That's the first time we've heard that his character knew Dick Van Dyke's Bert directly, so that's a cool little detail. Emily Blunt is playing Mary Poppins, Ben Whishaw will play the grown-up Michael Banks, and Meryl Streep also has a role.

Miranda is working with Disney not only on this film, but he's helping with the music for the upcoming animated movie Moana and he's also teaming with Alan Menken to write songs for their live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. The Disney animated films of the late '80s and early '90s had a profound impact on him when he was growing up:

“My God, those Disney musicals,” he said. “I feel really lucky that I was a kid when they went on that run of animated musicals, starting with ‘The Little Mermaid.’ Not just animated movies, animated musicals. Howard Ashman [the late writer-lyricist of ‘Mermaid,’ ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘Aladdin’] figured out, ‘Oh my God, I can make even better musicals under this system than I can Off Broadway.’ I have never been more transported in my life than when ‘Under the Sea’ first started when I was nine years old. I said, ‘I cannot believe what is happening to me,’ and that feeling of vertigo in a movie theater. Something I’ve been chasing ever since. To be part of that legacy, and then ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ ‘Aladdin’ and ‘The Lion King,’ it was just this incredible run that happened when I was ages 9 to 14. It’s very formative to me. I’m thrilled to be a part of that tradition.”

Additionally, NBC announced that Miranda will host Saturday Night Live on October 8th, which will be the new season's second episode. (Margot Robbie is hosting the premiere this coming weekend.) Twenty One Pilots will be the official musical guest for Miranda's episode, but I have to assume Miranda himself will get to sing during at least part of the show (maybe during a pre-taped sketch destined to be a viral hit).

Mary Poppins Returns hits theaters on December 25, 2018.

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