Few things are as “in” as the legacy sequel, so it stands to reason that a film as legendary as “The Devil Wears Prada” would eventually get that treatment as well. Everyone is back, from director David Frankel (“Marley and Me,” “Jerry and Marge Go Large”) to screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna (“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” “Cruella (2021)”) to, most importantly, the quartet of stars that made the original as iconic as it is. But is a two-decades later adventure in the world of high fashion and high excess as easily digestible in the modern age of 2026?
Andy Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway (“The Princess Diaries,” “Brokeback Mountain”), has just received the offer of a lifetime: after years as an award winning, globetrotting journalist, she’s gotten an offer to be the head features editor position of Runway magazine. The problem is the position will put her butting heads with Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep (“Kramer vs. Kramer,” “Mamma Mia!”), her former boss and the titularly devilish editor in chief of Runway. With the help of Miranda’s loyal right hand man Nigel Kipling, played by Stanley Tucci (“Conclave,” “Spotlight”), and former Runway assistant turned Dior executive Emily Charlton, played by Emily Blunt (“Mary Poppins Returns,” “A Quiet Place”), to help keep Runway alive in the new digital media age.
If recapturing the essential vibes and cattiness was the first and foremost goal, well then Frankel and McKenna have nailed it. Despite taking place twenty years after the first film, everything feels plucked right out of the pages of the original. It isn’t without any updating though, as there are even more cameos from the modern fashion elite and celebrities. More unexpectedly though, there’s a healthy amount of critique aimed at the era of modern journalism and digital media. It isn’t anything particularly complex, but watching someone as unflappable as Miranda deal with downsizing and digital shrinkage is compelling and resoundingly amusing. Even she isn’t immune to tech bros elbowing into her industry.
Streep is, expectedly, fantastic in her return to Priestly’s devilish grin and snark. It’s as if she never left, and the film adds some softness to her as the story progresses that allows the character to grow beyond what the first film accomplished. Hathaway is just as charming as ever, playing Andy’s optimistic flair as a welcome respite among Runway’s more cynical tenants. Blunt plays things in a slightly more overblown, cartoonish nature than before, but it still works for the film and her character. Kenneth Branagh (“Murder on the Orient Express (2017),” “Dunkirk”) joins the cast as Miranda’s new husband Stuart and he provides an agreeable and charming persona for Miranda to bounce off in times of need, although nothing groundbreaking.
The rest of the supporting cast seems to be going for the more overblown kind of performances, unlike Blunt’s Emily. B.J. Novak (“The Office,” “The Founder”) appears as Jay Ravitz, a tech bro-coed billionaire that feels just like every other role he’s played over the last decade. Justin Theroux (“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” “Mullholland Drive”) pops up as Benji Barnes, a newly successful tech mogul who feels like he must've been inspired by someone the filmmakers have a grudge against. The only other new supporting member who comes out unscathed is Lucy Liu (“Charlie's Angels (2000),” “Kill Bill”) as Sasha Barnes, who proves to be a wonderful if underutilized addition to the cast.
Virtually everything from the film’s technical and production side feels exactly in step with the original film, save a slightly drabber color palette. The film looks the part of a globe-trotting adventure draped in all manner of modern fashion with cameos abound. What other film can have appearances by Caleb Hearon and Donatella Versace? The color palette does look slightly greyer compared to the previous film, but that mostly is due to industry trends rather than a flaw in this particular style. Overall, it's a fine-looking film that gets the job done, with an unexpectedly great score by Theodore Shapiro (“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” “Severance”).
Underneath it all, McKenna has legitimately infused this tale with an intriguing amount of substance, getting into just enough drama surrounding journalistic integrity, the digital age, and the death of print media that a film like this would allow. It isn’t to the level of a deeply investigative drama, but there’s still more going on under the surface than one might expect. It at the very least manages to avoid being just another legacy sequel that seeks to do nothing but recycle last season's looks.
“The Devil Wears Prada 2” would be thoroughly entertaining purely on the basis of its quartet of leads, but there’s some legitimate effort from the production to make this more than a simple retread of what came before. While the supporting cast is hit or miss, and the overall production never rises above a basic look, you’ll have a great time simply existing in a world where Miranda Priestly gets to exist and fight it out with the best of them. 3.5/5
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