Mary Poppins in 2004, Walt Disney first attempted to purchase the film rights to "Mary Poppins" from P. L. Travers as early as 1938, but was rebuffed because Travers did not believe a film version of her books would do justice to her creation and did not want an animated cartoon based on it. The books had been a favourite of Disney's daughters when they were children, and he finally succeeded in purchasing the rights in 1961, although Travers demanded and got script approval rights. The relationship between Travers and Disney is detailed in "Mary Poppins She Wrote", a biography of Travers,
Mary Poppins Returns The studio shortly abandoned the effort. On September 14, 2015, Walt Disney Pictures president Sean Bailey pitched a new "Mary Poppins" film to Rob Marshall, John DeLuca, and Marc E. Platt, as the team had produced "Into the Woods" for the studio the year prior. With approval from Travers' estate, Disney greenlit the project with the film taking place 20 years after the first, featuring a standalone narrative, based on the remaining seven books in the series. Marshall was hired to direct, while DeLuca and Platt would serve as producers along with Marshall; David Magee was hired to write the