Alex Wheeler Movie Ops

Nostalgia cycles are relentless, with old trends, styles, and entire properties being resurrected with a wink to those who remember the olden times. 20 years isn’t that old, but it’s one of the known lengths it takes for things to come back around, so film has been revisiting the mid-2000s for a couple of years now. It’s time, then, for the film that never really left the zeitgeist to return in all its glory.
Or, at least, in an attempt to recapture that glory. The Devil Wears Prada hit 2006 like a sledgehammer, putting catchphrases (‘gird your loins’), high fashion, and Emily Blunt into the mainstream. Meryl Streep’s impeccable delivery of ‘no, no. that wasn’t a question’ endured long enough to become a popular meme. The Devil Wears Prada 2 wants the same kind of infamy, and it throws everything it can at recapturing the crowd-pleasing fun.
Anne Hathaway returns as Andy, who’s spent the last 20 years achieving her dream of being a hard-hitting journalist. Meryl Streep is back as well as the cruel editor-in-chief of Runway magazine, Miranda Priestly, with Stanley Tucci’s Nigel still by her side and Emily Blunt’s Emily Charlton pining for her approval. It’s the gang in all its glory, and while you can’t be surprised by their impeccable chemistry a second time, the group is still utterly marvelous.
They are forced back together by two inciting events: Andy and all her colleagues are laid off as part of journalism’s precipitous decline, and in an attempt to churn out online content to stay afloat financially, Runaway inadvertently publishes a puff piece about a company that uses sweatshops. This leaves Andy without a job, Miranda in need of a new editor, and both struggling to adapt to a world that’s slowly eating away at what they love.
Some things haven’t changed, though, as Emily deridingly notes about Andy’s eyebrows. The film stays close to its predecessor, indulging in the excesses of the fashion world to make the brutality seem fun. Streep continues to make Miranda a terrifying figure, although her character seems oddly passive this go-around. She still swaggers, but the mask is showing, and it’s failing to shield her from the vultures coming in to pick at what’s left of a seemingly dying industry.
That change extends to everything about The Devil Wears Prada 2. It’s defanged, with every sharp edge that made the original so delightful gone. In 2006, Andy went into the Runway offices unsure of herself and unimpressed with the fashion industry as a whole. She didn’t see the value, and she certainly didn’t think it was worth the catty, backstabbing brutality that made the industry stressful enough to cause a breakdown. But the film pushed back on her beliefs, refusing to devalue fashion. It created an immaculate vibe of ghastly relish, causing its audience to shriek at Miranda’s cutting remarks and luxuriate in the styles most couldn’t afford. In 2026, it brings no such complexity. There are notes about the world’s changes, but it doesn’t wrestle with them or find any clear statement on where we are now.
That leaves nostalgia as its primary selling point. It doesn’t rehash, but it pines for what used to be, and it hits the sorrow of the losses a bit too hard. Simply put, this isn’t as fun as the original. It may not have been trying to be, but it also doesn’t find anything to replace that energy.
The flatness is somewhat lifted by the strength of its cast, both returning and new, who play up what they are given. Surrounding the expectedly great performances of the main group is Justin Theroux being absolutely grating as an obscenely rich tech bro. He, along with B. J. Novak’s Ray, who has taken over Runway, slides into the role of not caring about fashion. Both are easy-to-hate villains, but they know not to be too villainous, because this is supposed to be fun. Also delivering on what’s asked of him is Kenneth Branagh, whose character is there to be a sounding board for Miranda and look good in a sweater.

All the outfits look good again, with the sequel delivering on the promised accoutrement that is pleasing to luxuriate in. But that’s a basic expectation for a movie about the fashion industry. Unfortunately, The Devil Wears Prada 2 only delivers on the basics.

Release: now in theaters
Director: David Frankel
Writer: Aline Brosh McKenna
Cast: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Justin Theroux, Kenneth Branagh, Stanley Tucci