Hollywood’s term for sequels that lag behind the original film by decades is “legacy sequels.” Or, as I like to call them, cash grabs. Yes, movies such as Top Gun: Maverick, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Practical Magic 2 (coming this fall!) can be just fine in their own right and offer generational bonding opportunities. But their rise speaks eloquently of the industry’s fight for survival: When all else fails to coax people into theaters, offer them second helpings of stories they already know and love.
And it works. The Devil Wears Prada 2, released 20 years after the original and again directed by David Frankel and scripted by Aline Brosh McKenna, grossed about $77 million domestically last weekend.
The deal
Two decades ago, recent college grad Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) took a job as assistant to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), the terrifyingly exacting editor of Runway magazine. After a transformative and often abusive experience in the haute couture world, Andy left to pursue her down-market dream of “real” journalism.
When we meet the older Andy, she’s receiving an award for her hard-hitting work — and learning that her job has fallen prey to media downsizing. Meanwhile, Miranda and Runway have landed in hot water after running a story touting a sweatshop brand.
To restore the ailing magazine’s credibility, Miranda’s boss hires Andy as Runway’s features editor. While Andy is happy to reunite with her editor friend Nigel (Stanley Tucci) and excited to wow her old nemesis, Miranda remains unimpressed.
Even that cold stare, however, is no match for the market forces that took Andy’s job and soon threaten even Miranda’s lofty position. Andy’s former Runway coworker, Emily (Emily Blunt), saw the writing on the wall: She left journalism long ago and is dating a billionaire tech bro (Justin Theroux). As for Miranda and Andy, fashion maven and fashion victim may have to put aside their differences to survive.
Will you like it?
Probably. I saw The Devil Wears Prada 2 with an enthusiastic crowd who applauded when the credits rolled. The original is a smart and spirited comedy, and fans greet the characters like old friends. Real locations in New York and Italy, over-the-top costumes, and model and celebrity cameos lend the film plenty of frothy escapism.
Frankel and McKenna also deserve credit for acknowledging all the ways the real world has changed since 2006 and making the woeful state of print journalism the crux of their story. Unlike the makers of Sex and the City 2, say — which reveled in hedonistic excess in the wake of the Great Recession — these filmmakers read the room.
And yet, as the continuation of a workplace comedy about the heroine’s conflicted relationship with her thorny boss, The Devil Wears Prada 2 just never gels. The core problem is that the two central characters haven’t evolved in any cohesive way, and their relationship seems to mutate with the needs of each scene rather than those of the overarching story.
Initially, Miranda claims not to remember Andy, which makes for a good laugh line in the trailer. But this plot point threatens to lead the movie off a cliff, because how can two people build on a previous relationship that exists for only one of them? Clearly realizing this, McKenna dismisses the problem in a single line: Apparently Miranda does remember Andy after all. How she feels about her former employee remains unclear, however, as Streep spends the film’s first half mainly just aiming moues of refined disgust at everything and everyone.
While Miranda seems disconnected, as if she’s grown beyond this nonsense, Andy might as well not have aged a day. The acclaimed journalist is still puppyishly desperate for her first boss’ approval. The film’s lack of realism about professional writing can be forgiven, and it’s refreshing to see Andy portrayed as happily single. But then she gets a token love interest (Patrick Brammall) who takes screen time away from the relationships we actually care about.
Because Andy and Miranda’s interactions no longer crackle with tension, our attention may wander. It doesn’t help that the screenplay is peppered with one-liners that sound like a chatbot: “I love that for you.” “Stockholm called, they want their syndrome back.”
Blunt and Theroux become the movie’s MVPs simply by playing their comically unlikable characters to the hilt. When Emily confronts Miranda with her own grievances, we finally get flashes of the intensity we’ve been missing. These two women feel like they have an embattled history in which Andy was only a footnote.
In the film’s second half, Miranda finally gets a few juicy scenes, and Streep delivers a stirring defense of the value of human craft in a mechanized capitalist hellscape. If only the movie itself felt less like it was made in a factory and more like it was lovingly stitched by hand.
If you like this, try…
The Devil Wears Prada (2006; HBO Max, rentable): In case you didn’t already rewatch it in preparation…
The September Issue (2009; the CW, Kanopy, Philo, Pluto TV, PLEX, Prime Video, Roku Channel, Sling TV, YouTube, rentable): If you’re curious about longtime Vogue editor Anna Wintour, the inspiration for Miranda, watch R.J. Cutler’s documentary that follows her as she meticulously oversees a single massive issue of the magazine.
The Gospel According to André (2017; Fandango at Home, Kanopy, Tubi, YouTube, rentable): Another Vogue fixture was late writer and editor André Leon Talley. This documentary portrait of him features many fashion icons.
This article appears in May 6 • 2026.
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