In 2016, Blunt starred in the fantasy-action film The Huntsman: Winter's War and The Girl on the Train, the latter based on the international best-selling novel of the same name, and a performance that earned her nominations for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role.

She is set to portray Mary Poppins in the upcoming musical fantasy film Mary Poppins Returns (2018).

The same year, she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture and a nomination for a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Devil Wears Prada.

In 2009, Blunt received the BAFTA Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year.

In 2003, Blunt made her screen debut in the British television drama Boudica, about the life of the ancient Celtic warrior-queen who fought the Romans.

Director Pawel Pawlikowski was highly appraisal of Blunt and co-star Natalie Press, stating in an interview that "Both Natalie and Emily were extremely different and very original, which is a rare thing nowadays.

They avoid the obvious, and are capable of playing complex and conflicting attitudes.

She found commercial success for roles in the romantic science-fiction thriller The Adjustment Bureau (2011), the science-fiction action thriller Looper (2012), and the science-fiction military film Edge of Tomorrow (2014).

Blunt received her fourth and fifth Golden Globe Award nominations for her roles in the romantic comedy-drama Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2012) and the musical fantasy Into the Woods (2014) in the Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical category.