Gird your loins and hide your unsightly cerulean jumpers because Miranda Priestly’s high heels are stepping back into cinemas this weekend as The Devil Wears Prada struts its stuff on the legacy sequel catwalk.
Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway are back to spar off against each once again, a reunion twenty years in the making, with Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt bringing it home in the supporting cast.
‘Ah, fate. The winding road that leads us back to me watching you ladle goo into a bowl.’
We rejoin Andy Sachs in the modern day, now an established, respected reporter receiving an award from her peers. There’s precious little time for Andy to rest on her laurels, however, as her entire department find themselves axed via mass text at the very same event.
Meanwhile, Runway (now a predominantly online publication rather than a straightforward magazine) faces a sudden controversy after featuring a brand with a heavy reliance on sweatshops. With Miranda and Nigel working flat out to set things right, Andy is enlisted to return to Runway as features editor in the hopes of bringing some journalistic bite back to its (digital) pages.
Under all this, a spurned Emily foments machinations of her own…
Everything else aside, it’s very good to see the full Runway cohort back in action for this new instalment. We’ve had so many franchise sequels as of late, and sometimes (for whatever reason) some stars don’t always come back. (2024’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice felt markedly different from its predecessor, for instance, for leaving Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis on the cutting room floor).
Given just how much of The Devil Wears Prada seemed to hinge on the interplay between its core four characters, it’s fantastic that in this case, everybody made the jump and similarly to the 2006 original, a lot of the fun of this new film stems from the confidence at play in each performance and the way that each fashionista bounces off of one another.
To lay my cards on the table, I must admit that I (for shame) hadn’t seen The Devil Wears Prada before the immediate run-up to this sequel, only catching it about a week ago so that I’d be caught up to the complexities of the New York fashion scene.
Beyond being something of a heresy, I actually think that separation proved useful going into the second film. The original holds a special place in a lot of people’s hearts – synonymous with Noughties nostalgia – but rather than go into the new instalment with any baggage or preconceived notions, I was able to place both films on an even, fair pedestal.
To that end, I can say with certainty that The Devil Wears Prada 2 does not reach the heights of the original, but stands as a solid, if decidedly safe, follow-up.
It’s interesting to see these characters and the brand itself move forward into our modern world, addressing the changes and struggles that such a shift would bring to something like Runway. The sight of an AI-generated meme of a sullen Miranda as part of the ongoing public outcry does a lot to highlight this new film’s M.O early on.
While the first film was intrinsically about Andy’s rise through the ranks of the fashion industry, this feels much more like an ensemble piece (proved by her new love interest, Peter, whose remarkably small role leaves him feeling like a remnant from a previous draft). Similarly, Miranda has moved on from her divorce to pastures green, with third charm seeming to prove the charm in the form of Kenneth Branagh’s Stuart, who gets next-to-nothing to do.
These tiny inclusions feel like testaments to the film’s rather impersonal quality – I didn’t get the same sense of the characters that the original brought with it, and though the film would have us love and embrace new additions to the cast (such as the new assistants in the form of the tech-savvy Jyn or the pragmatic Amari) just as warmly, there just isn’t enough time to get to know them amidst all the power shifts of the main narrative.
Unlike its predecessor, this film is much more about Runway than any one character, as the brand fights to preserve its relevancy in an ever intensifying onslaught of AI and hyper-consumable ‘content’. These are timely discussions that characterise our current climate, yes, and there’s a lot of time spent on them here, but the film doesn’t really come down hard enough on either side of the debate to feel as though it truly has something to say.
Hathaway and Streep have said in interviews that there’s a strength in simply showing women in powerful positions such as these – running companies and iconic brands – but that was equally true (if not more so) in the first instalment, which also managed to weave a great deal of other ideas and complexities into that positive message, too.
Unexpectedly, the titular Devil herself has seen a marked slump from the stern head honcho we saw in 2006. The original film saw that mask slip a little by the end, as Andy and Miranda’s relationship changed, and from an executive standpoint, Andy’s new role at Runway strengthens her position a great deal – no longer the assistant, frantically picking up the pieces – but it’s still odd to see such a powerful woman on the back foot for so much of this movie.
I wanted to come out of the cinema abuzz with new one-liners and put-downs, but outside of what you might’ve seen in the trailer, they’re rather sparse.
It’s nothing to do with Streep – she’s as fantastic as ever, and when the rare moment does come, she’s laugh out loud funny – but a knock against the writing for not letting the monster out of the cage more often. There’s actually something made of the office having ‘gone woke’ amidst endless HR complaints, with Amari trying to rein her boss’ sharp tongue in during spats in the boardroom, but this never turns the other way into a gratifying release of cutting scorn.
Andy brings attention to the oddness of Miranda seemingly having no plan, instead constantly reactive rather than bringing something of her own to the table, but this thread, too, doesn’t pay off.
All of those qualms aside, though, I still enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada 2. It’s interesting to rejoin old characters in a whole new decade and in a rather remarkable way, it seems that the combination of this core cast can never go too far wrong. Yes, Miranda’s characterisation feels muddled at times, but Streep runs with what she has.
Although she might not have the truly biting sensibility that she once had (to the chagrin, I’m sure, of some die hard fans) parts of her arc do feel in keeping with what we discovered about her in the final act of the first film. I can even appreciate the vision of portraying a Runway in a period of decline, even if these discussions weigh a little heavy on the plot, sacrificing some of the energy that director David Frankel was able to bring to the original.
In an age of non-stop legacy sequels – multiple outings every year – The Devil Wears Prada 2 carries a notable amount of heart that (to my mind) alleviated some of its weaker elements. With so many cast and crew from the first film returning, you do feel the love at play here, in spite of its shortcomings.
There are plenty of references and callbacks to please the fans (those who haven’t seen The Devil Wears Prada will find themselves a little lost at times) but their inclusion feels decidedly good-natured rather than exploitative.
Instead, these careful homages to the past inform the sequel and its characters, especially the relationship between Andy and Nigel, with Tucci shining as the unexpected gem in the crown of this new instalment.
BBFC: Rated 12A for infrequent strong language.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 is in cinemas now.
