The Devil Wears Prada 2, 2026.
Directed by David Frankel.
Starring Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, Kenneth Branagh, Simone Ashley, Justin Theroux, Lucy Liu, Tracie Thoms, Tibor Feldman, B.J. Novak, Patrick Brammall, Caleb Hearon, Helen J. Shen, Rachel Bloom, Pauline Chalamet, Conrad Ricamora, Lady Gaga, Kennedy Walsh, Ciara, Marc Jacobs, Calum Harper, Ashley Graham.
SYNOPSIS:
As Miranda Priestly nears retirement, she reunites with Andy Sachs to face off against her former assistant turned rival: Emily Charlton.
It might have moved at a glacial pace, but the sequel to The Devil Wears Prada has arrived with Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep returning to their iconic roles. The film is a nice return to the world of high fashion and how it, Andy and Miranda have changed in the industry’s shift to digital and social media. For a sequel made 20 years after the original, The Devil Wears Prada 2 answers pretty quickly why it is worthwhile with its cast and clever writing and humour for this trip around the runway.
Hathaway’s Andy is now a successful journalist who finds herself out of a job thanks to dwindling interest in journalism and corporate conglomerates downsizing across the board. Opportunity knocks when she is offered a job heading editorial for Runway which finds itself in crisis after a major controversy. Reunited with her devilish no-nonsense boss, Andy and Miranda have to navigate the changing times to keep Runway alive and successful.
It is clear Hathaway and Streep are having a ton of fun, making it seem as if 20 years did not go by between the original and its sequel. They both slip back into their roles easily and the chemistry between them is one of the highlights. Hathaway’s portrayal of Andy retains the character’s cheery demeanor but shows how much wiser and passionate she’s gotten, making fans relate to her in a new way as Andy’s desire to keep Runway’s traditions and write worthwhile articles instead of puff pieces and videos people don’t even read and watch for longer than five seconds one of the central themes of the story. Streep once again humanizes the cold and harsh boss lady of Miranda Priestly as the industry changes too fast for her to follow, delivering Miranda’s dry wit and charm alongside her panic at Runway’s precarious situation. It is an interesting parallel between the two as they face the existential dread of their careers while disagreeing on the ways to stay relevant and retaining their art.
It of course wouldn’t be Devil Wears Prada without Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci who also return as Emily and Nigel. Much like Streep, Blunt brings her own sense of wit to Emily’s sarcasm and newfound sense of superiority as Miranda has to stay in the good graces of Emily and the brand she represents. The film could have used a bit more of Blunt and she is underutilized for the first half, but the latter half finds more to explore of Emily’s position and her relationships that offers interesting insight. Tucci’s Nigel is still as magnetic as in the original with his own dry humour, sharing great scenes with Hathaway and providing some of the film’s more emotional moments as Nigel’s long friendship with Miranda is explored. The four core cast members click incredibly well, finding new ways to dig into their characters that doesn’t feel like retreading what was in the first film.
There are plenty of new characters that make their marks such as Bridgerton‘s Simone Ashley as Miranda’s latest assistant, Patrick Brammall as Andy’s new boyfriend, Kenneth Branagh as Miranda’s boyfriend and Justin Theroux as Emily’s ‘brilliant’ but dumb boyfriend. Hathaway and Brammall’s chemistry is great as their budding relationship feels very natural and believable. The writing in their first date is clever and funny as Hathaway and Brammall bounce off each other while Branagh allows Miranda to be more vulnerable, letting us see a side of her she rarely lets Andy or Nigel see. He is also more of the straight man in the film, commenting on the excessive lavishness of a party or Andy’s bravery to bother Miranda in one of her moods.
Ashley serves as a balance to Miranda’s mean streak, reminding her she can’t say certain things in today’s work culture while also being over the top about fashion and how the wealthy view lower classes. Theroux adds some levity as a rich and rather clueless techbro, but it does wear thin fairly quickly as his dimwittedness stretches credibility (though with the techbros currently populating headlines and the world, this may be more scarily accurate than we’d care to admit), but his role’s saving grace is a great scene with Streep where he lays out the nihilistic argument against what Miranda and Andy are trying to preserve.
That itself is one of the central themes to Devil Wears Prada 2 as the story tackles how obsolete the magazine and news industry has become. Processes and formats change so incredibly fast it is hard to keep up with, forcing Miranda and Andy to find ways to keep afloat in an ever changing landscape. The film has a slight backdrop of criticism against the ultra wealthy and snobbish people like Miranda and her colleagues who look down on the middle and lower classes, but the film doesn’t go quite as far with either theme as it could, painting Miranda in a more sympathetic light than the first one did. It is still entertaining and fun to see Hathaway, Streep, Blunt and Tucci together again with plenty of cameos from the fashion world and justifies the need for a sequel, but the story is basic and the message isn’t pushed as strongly as it could or should.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 is a welcome return to Runway with the cast’s chemistry its biggest selling point. Hathaway and Streep captivate every scene they are in, finding new ways to explore Andy and Miranda two decades later with a humourous script. The story could have done a bit more with its themes of the loss of art and creativity for a quick buck or 30-seconds of exposure on whatever social media is the latest craze, but fans of the original will still find plenty to enjoy in this film.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Ricky Church
