A spoonful of sugar might not be enough for this one. A new Mary Poppins television series is in the works, and it’s looking beyond Disney’s famously cheery version of the magical nanny to some of the stranger and darker material found in P.L. Travers’ original books.

The live-action project won’t simply recreate the 1964 classic starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Instead, the plan is to draw from Travers’ eight Mary Poppins novels, where the character and her adventures can be considerably more unpredictable and unsettling than many viewers might expect.

Deadline, which broke the news, reports that Tom Winchester (Shōgun) is developing and producing the series through Pure Fiction Television after optioning the rights from the trustees of the P.L. Travers estate. Winchester is now approaching high-profile showrunners, although the project remains at the pitch stage.

This Isn’t Quite the Mary Poppins You Remember

Travers’ Mary is a sharper and less comforting figure than the version that became a Disney icon. She’s stricter, more mysterious and harder to read, while the magical adventures around her can wander into territory that’s more eerie than cosy.

That gives a television adaptation plenty of room to surprise audiences familiar only with the films. Eight books also give the creative team a much larger pool of stories, characters and bizarre detours to draw from.

Just How Strange Could This Mary Poppins Get?

Some of Travers’ source material gets weird fast. In the first book, Jane and Michael visit the zoo at night and discover the usual order has been flipped: the animals are roaming freely while humans are locked inside cages.

It gets stranger from there. The gathering turns out to be a celebration for Mary Poppins, whose birthday has fallen on a full moon, and the children meet the Hamadryad, a huge snake regarded as the true king of the animals. Mary calls him her cousin, and he presents her with his shed skin as a birthday gift.

Mrs Corry, the elderly sweetshop owner, pulls off an equally bizarre trick elsewhere in the book when she snaps off two of her own fingers and gives them to the Banks twins, John and Barbara, as barley-sugar sticks. New fingers promptly grow back in their place.

None of this means these particular stories will appear in the new series. No plot details have been revealed. But they offer a taste of just how strange, eerie and occasionally menacing Travers’ world can become once you move beyond the familiar Disney version.

Disney Isn’t Officially On Board

Disney isn’t currently attached, although very early conversations are reportedly taking place.

Because Winchester optioned the rights directly from the Travers estate, the project doesn’t require Disney’s involvement to move forward. Given the studio’s decades-long association with Mary Poppins, however, there is reportedly hope that it could eventually come aboard.

Disney famously turned Travers’ work into its Oscar-winning 1964 musical before returning to the property with 2018’s Mary Poppins Returns, starring Emily Blunt. Travers’ famously difficult relationship with Walt Disney during development of the original film later inspired 2013’s Saving Mr. Banks.

Winchester also has experience tackling sizeable literary properties. He produced the first season of FX’s Shōgun and is developing Barry Eisler’s John Rain novels as a television series for Apple TV.

There’s still a long way to go. No broadcaster or streaming service, showrunner, cast or release date has been announced. But going back to Travers’ books rather than simply dusting off the Disney formula gives this Mary Poppins project an intriguing hook right out of the gate.

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