“The Devil Wears Prada 2” is Well-Worn, but Not in a Good Way
The Devil Wears Prada is one of those movies that’s made for sick day viewing. Meryl Streep is deliciously nightmarish as Miranda Priestly, the editor-in-chief of the fictional Runway magazine. It’s widely rumored that Miranda is based on longtime Vogue editor Anna Wintour, and while that may not be the most flattering of comparisons, Wintour eventually admitted that she found the film, and Streep’s performance, enjoyable. And so did millions of others. Millennials have been penning think pieces about almost every aspect of The Devil Wears Prada since the early days of internet journalism, when Buzzfeed ruled the World Wide Web. It’s no surprise that, twenty years on, some studio thought the world needed The Devil Wears Prada 2.
Just as in real life, twenty years have passed for the characters in the film. Miranda is still in charge of Runway, but it’s a different world. Print media and magazines are a dying industry, and who is Miranda without Runway? In the interim since her time as Miranda’s assistant, Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) has made a name for herself in serious journalistic circles. Of course, that only means so much when newspapers and magazines are gutting their staff. Such is Andy’s experience. Just before she accepts an award for a piece she wrote, she learns she’s been laid off. At the same time, Runway has been hit with an exposé. In an attempt to save face, Andy is hired as a features editor, which brings her face-to-face with her former employer.
Photo by Macall Polay. © 2026 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Part of what made The Devil Wears Prada a film people wanted to return to time and again was Streep’s performance as Miranda. She’s so steely, so cold, so certain of what she wants. For much of the original film, she’s quietly observational. So much is said with the arch of an eyebrow or the turn of her head. Streep’s performance was commanding in its silence. She was also ruthless. It’s her one-liners that have remained in the cultural consciousness. Yet The Devil Wears Prada 2 takes that away from her. Who wants to see a Miranda who has grown? Who’s decided to become kind? She’s called the devil for a reason. Now she’s just a muted version of herself. Someone who rolls over without a fight. Who is this Miranda Priestly?
© 2026 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Many nostalgic bait movies show the central characters forced to reckon with their own mortality. Top Gun: Maverick is one of the best examples of how to best handle the in-between years from original to sequel. Miranda has moments of introspection about her legacy and her time at Runway, but they don’t amount to anything meaningful. Any concerns Andy or Miranda have about the future of the magazine are quickly addressed in a montage. There’s no sense of friction or real conflict for these characters, and that makes for a film that doesn’t linger for the viewer. There’s nothing that challenges the viewer, not even slightly, despite the fact that The Devil Wears Prada 2 vaguely gestures toward concepts like fast fashion, the erosion of journalism, and billionaires who gut companies and make them shells of what they once were.
That gutting is exactly what happened with The Devil Wears Prada 2. It’s a shell of the original. The characters have forgotten all their development from the original film and returned to the dynamics that made the movie popular in the first place. The Devil Wears Prada 2 brings back all your old favorites, but a quote from Miranda in the original floats to mind. “Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking.” Simplified nostalgia? For moviegoers? Groundbreaking.
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