How Do the 'Mary Poppins' Sequel Characters Look Compared to the Original Cast? Pictures of the

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Mary Poppins

Julie Andrews played the practically-perfect-in-every-way nanny in the 1964 original. Emily Blunt takes over the magical flying umbrella in the sequel.

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The Sidekick

In the original Mary Poppins, Mary's sidekick is Bert, a chimney sweep/sidewalk chalk artist extraordinaire who is privy to her magic and probably low-key in love with her. Since Mary Poppins Returns is a sequel and takes place 20 or so years after the original, Bert is no longer a spry, dancing handyman. Now, Mary's sidekick is Jack, a lamplighter and former apprentice of Bert's who's played by Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda.

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Michael Banks

In the original Mary Poppins, Michael Banks (played by Matthew Garber) was a young boy who writes a letter that gets torn up, thrown out, and magically whisked away by the wind to Mary Poppins, summoning her to Cherry Tree Lane. In the 2018 sequel, he's a grown man with a hipster mustache and three kids of his own. Turns out, he grows up to look like Ben Whishaw.

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Jane Banks

Jane Banks was played by child actress Karen Dotrice in the 1964 film. In Mary Poppins Returns, Jane is played by English actress Emily Mortimer.

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Mr. Dawes

This is a fun one. So, in the original movie, there were two Mr. Daweses—Mr. Dawes Jr., who was played by an actor named Arthur Malet, and Mr. Dawes Sr., who was played by Dick Van Dyke in hilarious old age makeup. In Mary Poppins Returns, Dick Van Dyke makes a cameo as Mr. Dawes—but as Jr. this time.

Fun fact: Van Dyke is the only actor from the original film who also appears in the sequel.

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Ellen the Maid

Another character that made it into the sequel is Ellen, the Banks' family maid. In the 1964 film, she was played by British character actress Hermione Baddeley. In Mary Poppins Returns, the character is played by BAFTA and Golden Globe winning actress Julie Walters.

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Admiral Boom

The Banks' eccentric, cannon-shooting neighbor, Admiral Boom wasn't a huge part of Mary Poppins, but he was important enough to warrant an appearance in the sequel, apparently. The character, played by Reginald Owen in the 1964 film, will be played by David Warner in the sequel.

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The Kids

You can't really do a Mary Poppins movie without a few adorable kids for her to inspire. In the 1964 film, those kids are Jane and Michael Banks, played by Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber.

In the 2018 version, the kids are Michael Banks' children, Annabel, John, and Georgie Banks, played by Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh, and Joel Dawson, respectively.

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The Eccentric Relative

One of the most memorable characters in Mary Poppins was Uncle Albert (Ed Wynn), the cooky old man who laughs and floats to the ceiling...and then cries and falls back down. There's no Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins Returns, but the sequel does have an eccentric relative character of its own, in the form of Mary Poppins' cousin Topsy, played by Meryl Streep.

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The Old Woman Named for a Thing She's Usually Seen With

In the original Mary Poppins, we meet the iconic Bird Woman, the sweet homeless lady who feeds the birds and encourages others to do the same for just tuppence a bag. She was played by Jane Darwell. In Mary Poppins Returns, there isn't a Bird Woman listed in the cast, but we do have a character called the Balloon Lady, played by Disney vet Angela Lansbury.

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The Evil Banker

If you've seen the original Mary Poppins, then you know that bankers are evil monsters who don't believe in feeding birds. In the original film, Dick Van Dyke played the director of Dawes Tomes Mousley Grubbs Fidelity Fiduciary Bank in London. In Mary Poppins Returns, Colin Firth is stepping in as the current president of Fidelity Fiduciary Bank, and he looks just as villainous and money-grubbing in his official poster portrait.

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The Animated Penguins

One of the most iconic sequences from the original Mary Poppins is the scene when Mary, Bert, and the kids jump into chalk art and spend a while singing and dancing around an animated world. Mary Poppins Returns pays homage to this sequence with some 2D animation of its own. Here's a look at the animated penguins of both films, side-by-side.

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