A live-action Mary Poppins television series has entered development, based on P.L. Travers' original eight novels rather than the beloved Disney musical. The plan is to explore the stranger, darker corners of the source material that the film never touched. Details remain scarce at this early stage, but the intent behind the project already promises something far removed from spoonfuls of sugar.

While Disney fans still hum along to a cheerful nanny, one producer is quietly building a Mary Poppins far too mysterious for a sing-along.

Tom Winchester is developing and producing the new Mary Poppins series through his production company, Pure Fiction Television. Pure Fiction Television is backed by See-Saw Films, the studio behind Slow Horses and Heartstopper, along with talent agency Hamilton Hodell. Winchester has optioned the rights directly from the trustees of the P.L. Travers estate, meaning Disney's involvement is not required. According to Deadline, the project is being built to open up Travers' larger and stranger fictional world.

Early conversations with Disney are already underway, though nothing has been finalized regarding the studio's involvement. Deadline reports that Winchester is approaching top-tier showrunners, while no network, cast, or release date has been locked in yet. Both Pure Fiction Television and Disney declined to comment on the matter. The books themselves describe a Mary far more mercurial and dangerous than the singing nanny audiences remember.

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As Mary Poppins prepares for her stranger transformation, an entire industry is quietly rewriting how stories get chosen at all.

The Venice Film Festival recently hosted the Book Adaptation Rights Market, part of the Venice Production Bridge, running from September 4 to 6, 2026. Publishers and agents used the event to pitch entire catalogs, including unpublished manuscripts, directly to producers. Chiara Marin, the market's coordinator, explained that producers once judged books primarily by adaptation cost. Now, according to reports, story quality and multi-season potential matter more than the price tag.

British journalist Marie-Claire Chappet's debut novel, Broken Toys, already had its screen rights acquired by A24, Netflix, and Lookout Point, even though the book will not be published until 2027. Meanwhile, adaptations like Off Campus Season 2 and The Love Hypothesis already show that the appetite has never been stronger. It seems fitting that even a nanny from 1934 is getting swept into this new wave of ambitious book adaptations.

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What are your thoughts on this darker, stranger Mary Poppins series? Let us know in the comments.