Twenty years after the original *The Devil Wears Prada* cemented its place as a cultural touchstone – spawning viral quotes, a hit West End musical, and a permanent spot in popular fashion discourse – a long-awaited sequel from Walt Disney Studios has finally landed in cinemas worldwide, with the entire original A-list ensemble reprising their iconic roles. At the top of the call sheet, three-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep returns as Miranda Priestly, the sharp-edged, intimidating editor-in-chief of fictional Runway Magazine, a character widely believed to be modeled on Vogue’s legendary editor Anna Wintour. Streep, alongside co-stars Stanley Tucci, Anne Hathaway, and Emily Blunt, opened up about the project in interviews with BBC News, revealing that the entire cast attached one non-negotiable condition to signing on: the sequel would only move forward if its story felt relevant to the current cultural moment.
Unlike the original 2006 film, which centered wide-eyed new assistant Andy Sachs’ fish-out-of-water experience in the high-stakes world of high fashion publishing, the sequel leans heavily into the seismic shifts that have upended the media industry over the past two decades. Plotlines mirror real-world industry upheaval: steep newsroom staffing cuts, plummeting print circulation, and the total domination of digital and social media platforms that have stripped traditional journalists of much of their editorial control. Even emerging technology like generative artificial intelligence has a place in the story’s narrative. Tucci, who returns as fan-favorite creative director Nigel Kipling, explained that the team refused to make a hollow cash-grab follow-up to the original. “Everything has to have its own necessity for being – even the frothiest sort of fun movie,” Streep emphasized, echoing that sentiment.
Hathaway, who reprises her role as Andy Sachs – now returning to Runway as the publication’s new features editor after years away – notes that the sequel avoids retreading the original’s story to instead reflect how much the world has changed. One of the film’s core messages, she says, is that audiences hold the future of independent journalism in their hands. “I hope people realise the fate of journalism really rests on them and if you believe in it, you believe it’s important – I personally do,” she shared. Despite the timely, serious themes woven through the script, the cast is quick to stress that the sequel retains all the lighthearted, fashion-forward fun that made the original a hit. Streep jokes that while the story addresses industry struggles, it is far from a gritty investigative drama like *Spotlight*: it remains a glamorous, witty comedy packed with iconic designer looks. Tucci echoes that, framing the film as a much-needed escape amid global chaos, while Blunt, who returns as the sharp-tongued Emily Charlton, promises audiences a “joy bomb” of nostalgia and laughs perfect for seeing with friends.
For Blunt, the *The Devil Wears Prada* franchise holds extra personal meaning: she introduced her sister to Tucci at the original film’s 2006 premiere, and the pair have now been married for 14 years, making Tucci permanent family. In the sequel, Emily has left her assistant role at Runway to take a senior executive position at a luxury retail brand, putting her in a whole new professional landscape alongside her former colleagues. Blunt points out that beyond the snappy one-liners and A-list celebrity cameos (which include fashion icons Marc Jacobs and Naomi Campbell, shot on location in iconic fashion hubs New York and Milan), the sequel also explores deeply human themes of self-realization, forgiveness, reconciliation, and reclaiming one’s path.
Early critical reception for the film has been largely positive. *Variety* praised the project as “a sequel made with intelligence and respect for both its predecessor and the legions who still love it”, while *The Guardian* called it “good-natured, buoyant entertainment”. *Empire* noted that the sequel succeeds because it gives core characters an entirely fresh story rather than relying on nostalgia for the first film, though it added that the high-fashion narrative could have benefited from higher narrative stakes. *The Hollywood Reporter* offered a more muted take, describing the film as “pretty polished and as featherweight as a fawning magazine puff piece”.
A core throughline that made the original film a cultural hit remains central to the sequel: its unapologetic focus on ambitious, career-driven women, a trope that remains rare in Hollywood even two decades later. Streep pointed out that the harmful stereotype of ambition as an “unattractive” quality for women has not disappeared as many hoped it would. “We would hope that feeling would be obsolete but it isn’t, it’s alive and kicking,” she said. Hathaway agrees, noting that stories centered on women who love their work and prioritize their careers are still far too uncommon in the film industry – a gap that explains why the original resonated so deeply 20 years ago, and why the sequel is connecting with audiences now.
At the same time, the sequel explores the nuance of balancing high-pressure careers with personal fulfillment, rejecting a one-size-fits-all approach to success. Hathaway explains that the film emphasizes that definition of a full, satisfying, meaningful life is deeply personal: for some, that centers a career, for others it centers personal life, and neither path is inherently better. Streep adds that this is a message that resonates for men as well, noting that the universal goal for most people is to find a sustainable balance between professional and personal priorities.
Penned by returning screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna and directed by original director David Frankel, the sequel aims to give audiences both the nostalgic fun they loved from the original, and new, thought-provoking ideas to take away. For Hathaway, that balance of joy and inspiration is exactly what makes the project worth making: “Seeing a story that centres around a character you can connect to that inspires you [is] a huge reason why I’m sitting here right now.” *The Devil Wears Prada 2* is in theaters globally now.