“The Devil Wears Prada 2” was released in theaters on May 1, 20 years after the first movie was released. Set in both New York City and Italy, the directorial frame brings you out from the mundane office shots and takes you to picturesque fashion hubs. The movie stars Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly, the editor-in-chief of the Runway magazine, Anne Hathaway as Andy, the features editor, Emily Blunt as Emily Charleton, who has now climbed the ladder to become the senior executive at Dior, and Stanley Tucci as Nigel Kipling, playing as the art and fashion director.
The first movie is about the relationship between Miranda (A strictly authoritative boss) and Andy, formerly Andrea (an inexperienced, new assistant of Miranda). Highlighting Andy’s journey of finding her place and regard in her boss’s eyes, especially with a tough and competitive background of the Runway magazine, the original version provides a sneak peak into an elite fashion journalism company in New York City. Following the end of the first movie, when Andy chooses personal life over fashion, this sequel takes a complete opposite turn. Andy has left her former company Runway and her boss and started working for another organization The Vanguard. After a mass layoff by her company, the Vanguard, she is forced to seek out a new job just after winning a major journalism award. The chairman of Runway contacts her, prompting her to accept the very job she left, as she has no other choice. At Runway, she is determined to win the support of Miranda, but with much more self-assurance and a greater purpose of producing great work. Through gossiping and building personal relationships with other staff members, she finds out about administrative hurdles faced by the Runway threatening Miranda’s job. To keep the company afloat, a third party is willing to buy Runway, led by none other than Emily Charleton and her rich boyfriend Benji Barnes. The devil in the plot has changed, forcing Andy and Miranda to work against Emily, who was perceived as the villain. The movie ends with a smooth, rather rushed-off, reconciliation.
What was particularly striking was not the plot, costumes, or even the direction style, but the setting. To have a movie made in 2026 about the world of fashion and not reflect its cruel realities or the burdens you face in the age of social media would have been mere ignorance and injustice, but this sequel addresses the topic well. The first movie was groundbreaking because it zoomed into the fashion universe, an area long admired by audiences and readers of Vogue, but that felt too out of reach. The sequel, however, realises that people’s thirst about knowing the fashion industry is now drying up, so the movie has an engagingly independent plot that feels relevant, but goes beyond just the commentary on fashion alone. There, enters the problems faced by journalists, with the movie addressing being laid off and billionaire corporations endangering journalistic freedom, something well-handled by the movie makers. At times, it did feel slightly rushed as if certain events were forced to keep the pace going, but overall the pacing was well done. Emily turning into a villain was very unexpected because there were no evident clues about that in the preceding movie.
The juxtaposition of the directorial design of the movie was also quite evident. At times it felt quite larger than life and at other times quite rebellious. The movie included shots of the majestic New York Skyline, the Met Gala-esque event and Italy’s iconic sites. Simultaneously, there were zoomed in shots on the characters, focusing on their natural beauties and scars. It seemed that certain scenes were shot as if “Devil Wears Prada 2” was an A24 independent film. Where there was a feature song by Lady Gaga, there was also background music by Laufey, bringing audiences of the different worlds together.
The movie relied heavily on exquisite fashion choices that scream understated luxury. Unlike the fashion in the first movie which seemed to belong on the runway, the sequel presented it rather as a form of exquisite, well developed taste that could actually be understood by a large audience. It appeared that actors were adorned in clothes whose style and fashion could be appreciated by a general audience, not just fashion experts.
The movie brought light to the vulnerability of its characters. Miranda is known for being cold, but when she talks about writing a book about herself, her demeanour shifts. “You know how much of my children’s lives I’ve missed. Just put it all in there. Because people should know. They should know there’s a cost. But boy, I love working. I really do. Don’t you?” says the devil, Miranda Priestly, herself. Coming from a supposed devil who alienates people with her dominance, it speaks about the realities of managing work and family, bringing originality on the screen. While Miranda was heavily grounded in her ‘aura’, presenting it this way brought a shade of gray to how she was perceived, attracting sympathy from the audience even when she continued being herself.
The sequel might be as iconic as the first movie, it may not become a classic like the original, but it rather honestly depicts stories and characters, moves the plot, and engages the audience. Hence, it makes up for a very sound and well-planned closure to a movie that has entertained audiences across the world. It is not independently a landmark, but satisfies the legacy of the original movie.