‘Mary Poppins’ TV series on the way that promises to be more surreal than the movie

The character of Mary Poppins has been around since 1934, when it originated in P.L. Travers’ novel of the same name. Mary Poppins first appeared onscreen in 1964 in the Disney film of the same name, which is likely where most people know the character from. Finally, a sequel film, Mary Poppins Returns, was released in 2018.

Now, it appears that the character will be headed to the small screen, as it’s been confirmed that a live-action adaptation series is in the works. Tom Winchester is producing and developing the series on behalf of Pure Fiction Television. It’s still in the early stages, so a release date will likely be a year or two away, but it’s exciting news for Mary Poppins fans.

The show will reportedly stay true to the novels

For those unfamiliar with the novels, there were eight in all, and they were a touch more surreal, frightening, and mysterious than the film versions. In the series, the Banks children traveled the world by compass, met a Bird Woman, attended a Halloween dance party with their shadows, visited a garden party under the sea, met cats on other planets, and more. The extended world of Mary Poppins is larger and stranger than the film versions suggest.

Reportedly, the television series will stay truer to the books and explore the expansive universe and further adventures of the Banks children. Given that Travers fell out with Disney after criticizing his ideas for the film (which inspired the movie Saving Mr. Banks), it might be for the best that the TV show plans to go this route.

Interestingly, Mary Poppins leaves for good at the end of the third novel. The rest of the series simply recounts escapades that occurred when she was previously around, so it will be interesting to see how the show might set that up if it gets that far.

This is far from Winchester’s first time adapting legacy IP

Winchester optioned the rights from the trustees of the P.L. Travers estate and is also developing the show on their behalf. Mary Poppins is a legacy IP — not only were the novels successful, but the Disney film was as well (despite Travers’ objections). It’s a significant undertaking, but this isn’t Winchester’s first time adapting an IP of this nature. He is currently developing the John Rain assassin books (18 in all) by Barry Eisler into a series for Apple TV. Previously, he was a producer on the Emmy-winning and popular show Shōgun, based on James Clavell’s novel.

As for whether Disney will be involved at all with this adaptation remains to be seen. According to Deadline, early conversations have allegedly taken place with the House of Mouse, and Winchester has supposedly approached showrunners there. However, nothing has been agreed to, and things are still at the pitching stage.

To be clear, Disney isn’t required to be a part of it, as the rights came from the Travers estate. There’s simply some hope they may want to be attached to the Mary Poppins series given their history with the IP.

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