The Sequel Nobody Wanted — Until They Did
Let’s be honest about how we got here. For years, both Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway were firmly against a Devil Wears Prada sequel. They wanted the original left alone. And fair enough — the 2006 film earned its status. It didn’t need a follow-up.
However, slowly and surely, that position changed. The full cast came back. The original director, David Frankel, returned. So did screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna. The machinery started moving, and on May 1, 2026, Devil Wears Prada 2 arrived in theatres.
So — was it worth the wait?
The Cast Is the Film
Here’s the thing about assembling Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci in one room. You don’t really need a story. The screen presence alone carries you.
Every first meeting crackles. Every exchange of sarcasm lands exactly where it’s supposed to. The banter between these four is effortless, and because of this, you find yourself genuinely enjoying long stretches of the film — almost in spite of yourself.
Meryl Streep, in particular, deserves a paragraph of her own. There’s a scene where she’s in conversation with a billionaire — no spoilers — and the discussion turns to change versus continuity. She removes her glasses. What follows is a reaction so loaded, so precisely calibrated, that it physically stays with you. Pre-tears, a shift in the jaw, a stillness that says everything the script doesn’t.
That’s what separates her from everyone else. It’s not the reaction itself. It’s the trajectory — the range she moves through in under a minute, taking the audience with her every step. That’s craft at its absolute peak.
There’s another moment near the end, in the car with Anne Hathaway. Miranda Priestly says, simply: she loves to work. The delivery of that line, in context, is devastating. Small, quiet, and completely unforgettable.
The World Doesn’t Open Up
That said, the film has a real problem — and it’s one worth naming clearly.
The original Devil Wears Prada worked because it threw you into the deep end of a world you didn’t know. You discovered the fashion industry alongside Andy. Every scene taught you something about how that world operated, what it valued, and what it cost to survive in it.
In contrast, Devil Wears Prada 2 offers none of that discovery. The world of Runway feels fully mapped. There’s nothing new to learn, no new layer being peeled back. The film stays within the borders already drawn by the first one, and as a result, the whole thing feels flat in a way that’s hard to shake.
Additionally, character development for the returning cast is wafer thin. These are the same people they were twenty years ago — give or take a few minor adjustments for Anne Hathaway’s Andy. The new characters introduced in this film get even less room to breathe.
A Missed Opportunity That Stings
For this reason, the film’s biggest frustration isn’t what it gets wrong. It’s what it refuses to follow through on. There’s a line buried in the middle of Devil Wears Prada 2 that is genuinely sharp: the idea that journalism has shifted from writing about what people want to read to writing about what people want to click. That’s a real, uncomfortable truth about where media is right now. It touches something that matters.
And then the film lets it go. It doesn’t want to go there. It would rather gesture at the depth than actually dig into it. Because of this, the social commentary ends up feeling decorative — enough to suggest the film has something to say, but not enough to actually say it.
That’s a shame. The bones of a genuinely interesting film about media, power, and what survives in a corporatised creative world are all there. The cast to carry it is there too. The script just didn’t want the weight.
So Should You Watch It?
Yes — with calibrated expectations.
If you loved the original and want to spend time with these characters again, you’ll enjoy yourself. The charm is real. The performances are worth the ticket price, particularly Streep’s. There are moments that will give you goosebumps, and the nostalgia hits in ways that are hard to resist.
That said, don’t go in expecting the original’s razor-sharp edge. That film had panache. This one has warmth. Those are different things.
We’re living in an era of nostalgia sequels. Devil Wears Prada 2 is exactly that — a well-made, occasionally brilliant piece of fan service that could have been something more. It didn’t take the chance. But what it offers, it delivers with style.
And when Meryl Streep removes those glasses — you’ll forget all of that, at least for a minute.
