The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026)
Directed by: David Frankel
Premise: Two decades after the events of the 2006 film, Andy (Anne Hathaway) is hired as Runway magazine’s new features editor, putting her back under the supervision of editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). They must steer the magazine through a crisis.
What Works: The Devil Wears Prada 2 is a legacy sequel. The original film was a hit that has an enduring fanbase and like a lot of successful legacy sequels, The Devil Wears Prada 2 recaptures what viewers liked about the original film while accounting for the passage of time and advancing the characters and themes. This isn’t so much a story about fashion as it is about media and the moviemakers capitalize on the changes in the culture since 2006, using the disruptions in the media industry to initiate the story. The first Devil Wears Prada ended with Andy leaving Runway magazine to start her career as a journalist. The new film picks up with Andy having had success as a writer but the journalism industry is contracting and she is unemployed. At the same time, Miranda discovers that her harsh style of supervision is no longer tolerated in today’s corporate environment and larger economic forces threaten her legacy. While Andy is still at Miranda’s mercy, there is a symbiotic relationship between them and actors Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep bring a slightly different approach to their characters. There is a maturity to The Devil Wears Prada 2 that comes forward in the second half. The story is structured well with the first half setting up everything and revisiting the appeals of the original film but the second half goes into original territory and has genuine stakes that have real consequences for the characters.
What Doesn’t: Much like the first film, the weakest element of The Devil Wears Prada 2 is the love story. Anne Hathaway and Patrick Brammall don’t have much romantic chemistry and their scenes are flat and unsexy. Both Devil Wears Prada films wrestle with an internal class tension. Andy is proletariat but the world of Runway is bourgeois. The filmmakers try to have it both ways, admiring Andy’s plucky underdog quality but also gazing lovingly on the branded products and the wealth of the fashion world. Moreso than the original picture, the sequel attempts to convince us that Runway is really a celebration of beauty and excellence but that’s not quite convincing especially in scenes in which the joke is Miranda and her high-class sensibilities suffering the indignity of sharing space with the vulgar plebs. The film’s confused economic critique is most apparent in the ending. Runway is up for sale and the solution is to find a beneficent billionaire. The conclusion also forces a reconciliation between characters that feels tagged on to placate the fans.
Bottom Line: The Devil Wears Prada 2 sits alongside Top Gun: Maverick and Rocky Balboa among the better legacy sequels. It exacerbates some of the economic caveats of the first film but the sequel also gives fans what they’re looking for while moving the story forward and justifying this film’s existence.
Episode: #1098 (May 10, 2026)