Broadway’s golden boy Lin-Manuel Miranda has now lined up quite the follow-up act to his hit musical Hamilton. Yesterday, news broke that the actor-writer-composer sensation is set to star alongside Emily Blunt in a sequel to the 1964 beloved classic Mary Poppins. The follow-up film will be set a few decades later in Depression-era London, with Blunt taking on the role of the magical English nanny, and Miranda as a lamplighter named Jack. The film is due to hit theaters Christmas Day 2018, so for now our dreams of the duo singing (maybe even beatboxing!) will have to tide us over until then.
As if starring in a major Disney movie wasn’t enough, Miranda now has an additional reason to celebrate: His 2008 Tony Award–winning musical, In the Heights, will be made into a major motion picture. While Miranda shot to national fame for his musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton, his first Broadway hit was actually another hip-hop play about the comings and goings of a group of immigrants living in Washington Heights. As with Hamilton, In the Heights was written and composed by Miranda, who also starred in the play as Usnavi, a bodega owner torn between staying in New York and moving back to the Dominican Republic.
After In The Heights won the Tony in 2008, Universal Pictures announced plans to make it into a film. But after several years of delays, the project was eventually dropped. Now, with the massive success of Hamilton and its record-breaking 16 Tony nominations, producer Harvey Weinstein has decided to bring the movie adaptation back to life. No word yet on who is set to direct or star in the film, but we’re guessing Miranda is at the very top of the list.