PG-13 | 1h 59m | Comedy, Drama | 2026
It’s the 20th anniversary of the now cult-classic “The Devil Wears Prada.” Its celebratory sequel, unimaginatively titled “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” hit theaters this May Day, starring original cast members Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci.
Sorry State of Runway
Runway Magazine’s Cruella de Vil–style editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) finds herself on precarious ground. The publication is a far cry from what it used to be. Print magazines face intense pressure from dropping circulation and shrinking newsrooms. Digital influencers are dominating the fashion scene, and her prestigious glossy isn’t immune to this magazine malaise.
What was once exclusive news is now digital, downloadable, and streamable—viral content for clicks, and likes rule supreme. Budget studio photo shoots have replaced far-flung exotic locales; economy class, not Gulfstreams, is the norm; and famous musical acts are getting cut from catwalks. The glamor is rapidly dwindling.
As if all that wasn’t bad enough, the magazine is in serious hot water. It ran a glowing puff piece about a fashion company. But that all blew up in the staff’s faces when it was later exposed as having scandalously run a sweatshop operation.
Advertisers are apoplectic, Miranda is being parodied online, and the magazine is losing ad money. Miranda is working overtime to earn back their trust, especially that of Runway’s biggest advertiser—Dior.
Jim Dandy, er, Andy, to the Rescue
Meanwhile, Miranda’s formerly ugly-duckling assistant Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), 15 years after leaving the publication, has blossomed into a world-swanning, award-winning journalist with an impressive reputation.
However, smack-dab in the middle of the vaunted journalism award ceremony night, Andy and her newspaper colleagues are fired from their publication—via text—due to a company buyout.
Andy’s tearful, angry speech about the importance of real journalism catches the attention of Sasha Barnes (Lucy Liu), the billionaire owner of Runway Magazine. Barnes hires Andy as Runway’s new features editor, in hopes that her glowing reputation and journalistic savvy will mend the magazine’s woes and kick off a new era.
But surprise, surprise—when Miranda, with her long-suffering assistant Nigel Kipling (Stanley Tucci) and Andy in tow, ventures forth, hat in hand, to Dior, she is greeted by Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt). Emily was yet another of Miranda’s formerly fearful, fawning assistants. Now she’s a top Dior executive. Oops.
Mellower Miranda
Like a fashion magazine spread, “Prada 2” has paper-thin plot depth. This story mostly caters to a specific New York (London, Paris, Milan) milieu, bringing out the fashion boys and Lady Gaga acolytes in droves.
While ogling fabulous clothes, bags, shoes, the world of high couture, luxurious locations, cameos of the rich and famous, and two brand new Lady Gaga songs (which she performs) isn’t my thing—I found it mildly fun to see this particular gang back together.
That is, their frenemy chemistry, the bonding and head-butting, the acerbic quips, the humorous bootlicking, and approval-seeking. No one’s aged a day in 20 years. It’s also nice to see Andy’s heartfelt connection with Nigel, and that her relationship with Miranda matures.
Ultimately, it’s satisfying to see that Miranda (apparently originally based on Dame Anna Wintour of Vogue magazine) must come down off her imperious and devilish high horse in order to survive.
“Prada 2” demonstrates how even the most high-flying careers have become precarious, that professional pinnacles can flip overnight. Formerly enviable stability and longevity can go the way of the dinosaurs at any time, at the whim of a company’s owner or any other variables totally unrelated to merit.
Objections
What I dislike about the franchise are the “let them eat cake”-type situations, like Andy asking about the cost of a luxury purse and Miranda’s out-of-touch assumption that the average consumer could afford it. And when she breezily delights in an invite to Miranda’s Hamptons beach house (“I’ve never Hamptoned!”). It’s basically status porn.
I caught the burning whiff of the Hollywood agenda when Miranda, observing Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” fresco at the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan (rented out for a Runway magazine confab), explains why the Christ figure has no halo. Her interpretation (and she projects that it was da Vinci’s as well) is that Jesus isn’t a god. He’s supposed to be the same as the humans around him, and what humans do is: “We let each other down. It’s what we’re built to do.” In other words, godlessness. That’s the actual devil in the “The Devil 2” sneaking in.
The true merit of this tale is that it outlines the current state of the media industry, the decline of print publishing, the return to the tradition of truthfulness in journalism, and its pithy, meaningful, helpful content.
“Prada 2” might as well be talking about The Epoch Times (ET)—the story of a start-up, which in order to address an ongoing genocide in China (a story that no other news outlet would touch) has, in 26 short years, moved from dead last to becoming the fourth largest news outlet in the United States. ET is also one of the world’s most powerful digital publishers and is bringing print editions and truthful reporting back. Truth would appear to be something everyone is craving right now.
‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’
Director: David Frankel
Starring: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hour, 59 minutes
Release Date: May 1, 2026
Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 5
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