There's a new Marry Poppins series in the works!
On Sept. 25, 2026, Deadline shared that “rather than a retelling of the 1960s film, we understand the live-action TV adaptation plans to go back to P.L. Travers’ original eight Mary Poppins books and open up the larger, stranger world she created.”
I grew up watching the magical nanny, Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews), and her chimney sweeper friend, Bert (Dick Van Dyke), in Disney’s Mary Poppins. The world was colorful and cheerful but also somber and dark at times. Mary’s songs are still popular today, as is her story.
Until now, we’ve had a much brighter version of the whimsical nanny who floated down from the sky with a bag of goodies and life lessons. Like all good children’s stories, there’s a darker tale that came first and demands to be brought to the audience that made the magical nanny famous since the 1930s.
Although I don’t know the source material firsthand, I’m looking forward to a deeper, darker look into Mary Poppins world. With this true-to-novel adaptation, Pure Fiction Television will shine a light on P.J. Travers’ beloved eight novels. Even though she has passed on, her work lives on through the eyes of children around the world.
What we know about Mary Poppins’ TV Series
In 1964, Disney released Mary Poppins starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. In 2013, Disney told the story of obtaining the Mary Poppins IP through Saving Mr. Banks, starring Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks. Then, in 2018, a follow-up movie, Mary Poppins Returns, starring Emily Blunt. Fans thought we said goodbye to the franchise since the second movie followed a grown-up Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw) and his family, but the beloved magical nanny franchise still has some tricks up its sleeve.
Walt Disney and Company introduced us to a softer and more whimsical version of Mary Poppins, while the books are “more mysterious, mercurial, and dangerous.” While we love the 1964 and 2018 film adaptations, Tom Winchester for Pure Fiction Television promises to bring the “adventures in the book that are known to be magical, surreal, and sometimes frightening” to the small screen.
Mary Poppins page to film
Saving Mr. Banks, a 2013 biographical film about securing the rights to Mary Poppins, told us that P.L. Travers was hesitant to let Walt Disney and company make the film. According to a September 2015 article in The Guardian, Travers noted that Disney toned down Mary’s character from how she portrayed her in her beloved novels.
The first book was released in 1934 and didn’t follow a soft, cheerful version of Mary Poppins. Instead, Travers created Mary to be “difficult to the point of obnoxious. She was a bit of a tyrant and came with no childcare professional references.”
Now, 30 years after her passing, we’re finally getting the Mary Poppins that Travers intended us to meet in 1964.
According to the report, Winchester is developing the series on behalf of the trustees of P.L. Travers estate, from whom he has optioned the rights. Deadline shared that “very early-stage conversations are taking place with Disney, and Winchester is approaching top-level showrunners. As we understand it, the project doesn’t need Disney’s buy-in from a rights perspective, but there’s hope the studio might want to join the project given their history with the IP. Nothing has been agreed to that effect so far. Things are still at pitch stage.”
Legacy IP
Although there are hopes that Disney will join the project, Winchester will have no problem working with a legacy IP. Due to his work as a producer on the first season of FX’s series Shōgun (novel by James Clavell), he is more than familiar with this side of Hollywood. The case still stands that Mary Poppins is a rich IP for Travers' most famous and successful books that Disney turned into an Oscar-winning musical. Sadly, due to Travers not liking the softer nature of the film, she and Disney had a falling out. Although their fallout turned into the successful film Saving Mr. Banks,, no one can erase that part of the IP’s history.
I hope that Winchester takes good care of Travers’ legacy. Considering all the work and time she put into not only her books but also granting Disney the IP rights, her work deserves respect. I’m eager to see the darker direction Winchester plans to take the TV series adaptation in.
Stay tuned to Show Snob for production updates and release dates.
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