Review: The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026)

Twenty years is a strange time for a sequel (If you are not Top Gun: MaverickIn this case you are rewriting the rules). It’s enough for nostalgia to settle into something of a myth, but it’s also enough for the world that allowed the original to quietly fade away.

This tension sits at the center The Devil Wears Prada 2And to their credit is the director David Frankel and a writer Aline Brosh McKenna Don’t try to soften it. The first image this sequel gives us is not fashion, or glamour, or even Miranda Priestly; But the journalists table at the awards ceremony to acknowledge that their work is still important. Before one of them goes on stage to claim another award, the entire table receives a text message at the same time. In a few seconds, they find out that they no longer have a job. The moment is not set for shock. It shows in a kind of rawness that feels out of place with how things are actually happening right now.

It’s an unusually direct way to start a film that carries so much cultural baggage, and it immediately changes the terms of engagement. Whatever this sequel does, it’s not just concerned with recreating the fun of the first Prada the movie. It looks at what remains after these pleasures are gone, and whether they have any meaning in a landscape that no longer operates by the same rules.

Here’s where I come clean: I’ve never had the kind of love for a first film that others seem to carry so easily. Sure, I’ve admired him in parts over the years, especially his performances, but he’s always been content with his own sharpness, more interested in the spectacle of power than what sustains it. As I said, this sequel, which arrived with the same creative team, suddenly caught my eye, not because it improves on every level, but because the years that have passed have shaped it.

World Andy is back there no more

The Devil Wears Prada 2 reintroduces us Anne HathawayAndy Sachs, as a person who has already experienced a version of success, the first film stood in front of him. He became a respected journalist, one who wins awards, only to have that life fall apart in an instant. Her return to Runway isn’t framed as unfinished business or even a temptation. It comes from a much simpler, truer place: there aren’t many options left.

This shift gives the film a different weight. The story is no longer driven by ambition clashing with compromise. Instead, it stems from a quieter questioning of what your work means when the structures that once gave it purpose begin to erode.

You can feel this erosion everywhere. The runway, once thought of as an untouchable institution, now exists in a version of the present where nobody seems to read magazines anymore. nigel (Stanley Tucci) makes clear at one point, and the film doesn’t argue with him. What used to be curated now competes with what feeds the channel. The idea of ​​spending time with an image, constructing a visual language that demands viewing rather than scrolling past, begins to feel almost strange.

Miranda Priestly At a time when taste becomes content

Even Miranda Priestly had to bend, if only slightly. It’s still demanding, still able to silence a room at a glance, but there are small concessions that accumulate over the course of the film. Cheap content, click-driven thinking, decisions made to keep the car running rather than meeting standards. Watching him move through this space is one of the most interesting tensions the film sustains. He doesn’t soften so much as he confronts a world that doesn’t need him as much as it used to.

Meryl Streep Miranda plays this version with a nuance that suggests both control and awareness. There are moments when it seems a little odd with the present, as if it is still testing itself against the already changed rules. There are also moments where the play opens up just to show that it understands exactly what’s going on. The question is not whether he can see it, but whether he can accept it.

The film expands on this anxiety by introducing new powers, esp Justin TherouxBenjy, a tech billionaire who talks easily about a future created by artificial intelligence. His vision of an industry where models, artists and even the human element are becoming unnecessary is presented without much animosity, which makes it all the more poignant. It is not presented as a caricature as much as a symptom of where things are going. This makes it hard to deny its presence.

For me, this theme is directly related to what the film revolves around, be it fashion or journalism. If everything is optimized for speed, scale, and efficiency, then things that once required time, attention, and care begin to feel expendable. The film does not resolve this tension. He lets it sit there, which feels closer to the truth.

Two ways to survive, one way to stay

Andy’s own arc carries this uncertainty in a more personal way. Early on, it asserts—almost defiantly—that journalism still matters. In another film, this line might come across as self-important, but here it is cut short by the context surrounding it. He says this at a time when his entire profession has just taken a turn for the worse. It doesn’t sound like a declaration of victory. It looks like someone is trying to hold on to a belief that no longer feels warranted.

This sense of searching is evident in his dynamic with Emily (Emily Blunt), is now positioned very differently than when we last saw it. They are no longer competitors in the same hierarchy, but still measure themselves against different ideas of success. Andy is looking for a purpose that justifies a job beyond survival. Emily operates from a place closer to validation, control, and standing in a system that rewards her. The film doesn’t force a clean contrast between them, which helps. This allows them to exist as two people who are shaped by the same world in different ways.

If there’s a quiet emotional center here, it might be Nigel. Tucci plays him with a sense of long-suffering, the kind that suggests years of devotion to a system that hasn’t always returned the same care. He remains sharp, observant and irreplaceable, but there’s also a hint of weariness in the way he carries himself. Without delving into the details, the film gives him the space to claim what feels earned, and that’s one of the most satisfying elements of the story.

When the plot is on the way

Unfortunately, the film does not always trust its own strength. The central plot, which involves corporate maneuvering and attempts to secure Runway’s future through McKinsey-like means, becomes more elaborate than it needs to be. There are stretches where the narrative feels like it’s assembling the pieces rather than letting them move on their own. A romantic subplot involving Andy’s new boyfriend never finds its footing. It’s present, it serves a purpose, but the film doesn’t invest enough in it for that thread to carry much weight.

There are also moments when the script veers towards speech, especially when it comes back to the importance of journalism. The ideas themselves are not the problem. The film already expresses them with its situations and performances. Saying them out loud, repeatedly, risks flattening what are otherwise more layered observations.

There are also moments when the film falters in ways that are less than forgivable. Introduction by Jin Chao (Helen J. Shen), a socially awkward Asian intern who serves as Andy’s assistant, landed with a voice. Even aside from the name — which seems more like a lazy template than an actual character — the portrait relies on a familiar shorthand that otherwise makes the film seem too self-aware to enjoy. As someone who doesn’t fall for all the misdeeds of representation, I still found myself dwelling on it. It’s not a deal breaker, but it stood out, especially in a movie that spends so much time exploring how institutions fail.

Related review: ‘Michael’

The look isn’t quite what it used to be

Also, for a film embedded in surfaces, the visual side is surprisingly uneven. Florian BallhausWhich returns as a cinematographer, unable to find the same tactile sharpness that made the first film pop; The images here are flatter, less attentive to texture, as if the world of Runway has lost not only its impact, but also its visual authority. This may be somewhat intentional, but it’s rarely intentional to sign you up for a choice.

Where the film does better Theodore ShapiroA score that carries a lighter, more supple touch than before. Although he’s ruthless at times, he moves with the characters, giving the film a quiet drive that the visuals don’t always provide.

To the filmmakers’ credit, the film never loses sight of its performers, and that’s what ultimately carries it through the stretches where the narrative falters. The four central leads, as expected, bring weight that feels earned. Even functional roles such as Lucy LiuSasha, Benjy’s ex-wife, helps anchor the larger industrial anxiety the film tries to grapple with. meanwhile, BJ Novak– Playing the heir to a company he neither respects nor emotionally invests in channels a certain hollow authority that makes more formulaic storylines almost unforgivable.

For all its flaws, The Devil Wears Prada 2 works

Even so, I found myself drawn back to what the film was doing when it was at its most attentive. He does not try to restore the past and does not claim that things can go back to the way they were. The summons are there, but they feel less like celebrations and more like reminders of a version of the world that no longer exists.

What the film understands, perhaps better than it lets on, is how many people can get wrapped up in a world that no longer works for them. Not just the work, but the taste, the rhythm of it, the belief that what you do matters in a way that cannot be measured by clicks or achievements. Watching this slide—not dramatically, but gradually, almost politely—gives the film its edge.

I did not expect a meeting The Devil Wears Prada 2 under those conditions. I thought he would be lighter on his feet, more interested in revisiting old pleasures than sitting next to a lost one. Instead, he continues to circle around this discomfort, even when he doesn’t know what to do with it. Some parts are overwrought, others feel half-formed, but there’s enough here that feels more alive than manufactured.

And for once, the return trip is not about restoring something. It’s about acknowledging that it’s gone and deciding what you still want to keep. It shouldn’t work as well as it does, but here we are. For something I went into with pretty low expectations, this counts for more than I expected.