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Aafter the promotional blitz that has driven the entire game from haute (Meryl Streep on the cover of Vogue and Anna Wintour) to no (bad line of Target Sweat), The Devil Wears Prada 2 has reached its finale, and is set to take in more than $200m in its first week.
Hailed as one of Hollywood’s rarest sequels measure to her beloved debut, the movie sees Streep reuniting Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci twenty years after the original film was released in the rags of producers, withers and many celebrities. Surprisingly, it works great. During my inspection on opening weekend, fans flocked to take pictures of promotional cardboard cutouts and mixed cocktails as the lights went down. Read on for full spoilers for the film, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Speedway 2.0
When the sequel to the 00s drama was first announced in 2024, many wondered how The Devil Wears Prada 2 would deal with the slow, depressing decline of the glossy women’s magazine. (Glamour, Self, Allure and Teen Vogue have them all it is closed or has gone digital in recent years.) Today, some of the best photography is on Instagram, the most serious fashion journalism is on Substack and the best styling is in the #GRWM TikToks.
It’s disappointing but fitting that Runway magazine is on life support at the opening of the The Devil Wears Prada 2. As glamorous as the Met Ball can’t hide the fact that the genre is in serious danger, as editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly (Streep) tries to keep Runway from going wrong with her likes and dislikes and Gorpcore shots, even the mere mention of bum bags makes her break out in hives. The editor is in the hands of the advertisers to keep the publication alive, and even the biggest story of the year is a shadow of what it once was. As he says with disgust, “the September issue is already so thin that you can get rid of it.”
After being fired from his well-deserved but underpaid job, the government reveals in the fictional New York Vanguard, Andy Sachs was brought in to “restore credibility” to Runway, which is in the midst of a PR crisis after accidentally promoting sweats. The film deals with the death of journalists in a subtle way – I’d say any journalist past or present would be shocked to learn as Andy describes the “deletions, mergers and downgrades” that have left him and many of his colleagues out of a job. A former colleague fell through the cracks while writing a memoir Paris Hiltonit’s a chihuahua.
Bringing back the gang
I found it impossible not to smile when Andy and Miranda are reunited, especially when the former editor begins to challenge his past. “You have to keep an eye on it, it makes you walk harder,” Miranda informs Andy of her normal gait. But it’s Tucci’s Nigel who has the funniest photos with Andy, from when he greets her with “Look what TJ Maxx pulled in” to (someone) in the fashion runway, where he showers her with designer clothes and a bad Hermès bag that can match the Louis Vuitton patches from the first one. Sex and the City a dirty movie.
The ice queen softens
The years have been good for Miranda, although the ice queen has not completely melted – or settled in politics in 2026. There are convincing callbacks to the woman who once lamented that it was impossible to find “a dear, skinny paratrooper” when Miranda tries to walk in the depths of modernity. Upon seeing a list of potential role models, she asks in utter confusion: “Some bodies are…
The original acidic humor is given to the level of Gaviscon, but it’s nice to see Streep looking like a light joke: in one of the scenes that happened at the garden party, she turns her head and laughs, gossips to Andy, and is looking for more flowers. And while it’s hard to sympathize with Miranda having to jettison her wealth or quit driving Ubers due to budget constraints, the film is a useful portrait of a man at a crossroads as he (quickly) considers retirement. The first movie showed why “everyone wants to be us”, but this sequel shows the value of maintaining that beautiful image.
Emily is the HBIC now
After publisher Irv Ravitz dies, the future of Runway is placed in the hands of his son: a Silicon Valley coded doofus who dreams of replacing editors and models with AI. He “sucks the life out of everything”, cries Andy, who hatches a harebrained plan to save the magazine with the help of Emily and his new friend, the tech oligarch Benji Barnes (Justin Theroux, playing a kind of Musk-Bezos group). It’s a clever set-up for some great two-hander moments between Hathaway and Blunt, and the plot hits too close to home for today’s media frenzy. to be controlled and technology billionaires.
Andy needs to do a double take: Hathaway’s character may have won a Golden Keyboard award (not me) for her bluntness but she’s underrated, and the love scene involving the Australian architect feels a little out of place. Meanwhile, Blunt’s portrayal of Emily has only gotten worse in the two decades since the first movie, throwing knives at friends at her new job at Dior and taunting Miranda about Runway falling into trouble. “Do you remember when magazines were a thing?” he laughs magically. Although caustic quotables are few and far between here, Blunt’s one-liners steal the show. After a cosmetic accident involving a paint shade called Tulip Whisper, he laments: “It’s not a whisper, it’s a cry for help.”
Take a picture… or don’t
Thanks to the film’s original stylist Patricia Field, there are at least a half-dozen looks from the 2006 movie that are so well-known that you can pull them off as Halloween costumes. The scene in the series is disappointingly disappointing and sweet in comparison: Andy doesn’t wear anything flashy here as a celebrity. Chanel clothesor Hathaway’s recent green leopard print dress to wear again in promoting the film. Instead, the former sponsor has been buying real estate and building clothing for neutral designers. Boring! I also couldn’t tell if Miranda Dries van Noten’s trench coat was meant to be stylish or silly (it looks to the former but worlds like the latter). Fortunately, the comedic relief comes in the form of Emily, who is often dressed in logos for the store and shows up at Irv’s funeral wearing the kind of clothes you usually expect. Father McRae music video.
Full of celebs
Even the stories of Lady Gaga‘s cameo was leaked months ago, his appearance in the third act of the film would still surprise with his little dedication. With no money to book a guest singer for the Runway event, Nigel and Miranda hatch a plan to blackmail the singer into performing for free. “WHO will you let him in here?” Gaga screams as Miranda walks into her dressing room, while the divas throw sweet honey shade. While Gaga’s cover of the forgettable Shape of a Woman pales in comparison to her latest single. A journey of mayhemnumber of visitors – Tina BrownLaw Roach, Marc JacobsHeidi Klum is Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns (of course!) among them – keep things moving quickly from one star-studded moment to the next.
A fitting finale
After a stunning photo shoot in Milan that includes speedboats, head skirts and a Donatella Versace cameo, it turns out that Emily’s idea for her rich friend to shop the runway was a complete ruse to usurp Miranda as an editor and put it on. himself as an editor. Naturally, Miranda can’t stand this and find her billionaire (Lucy Liu) to buy the magazine instead, and delivers the film’s most cutting line, telling Emily: “You’re not a visionary, you’re a salesman.” By the end of the film, the trio of Miranda, Nigel and Andy are back at work at Runway, newly hungry and perhaps a little wiser. And I won’t spoil the closing line of the movie here, but it’s a Miranda-ism for the ages. Give part 3.
