The Devil Wears Prada 2 Review: Runway Returns

The year is 2026, and Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) is no longer the deer-eyed aspiring journalist from Northwestern. She’s a seasoned, whip-smart writer-editor who has made peace - mostly - with her time at Runway. But the magazine is dying. Print is a ghost, digital is a monster, and Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) is fighting to keep her throne from toppling. The solution? A cash infusion from Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt), who has ascended from harried assistant to the tyrannical head of a luxury fashion house. The former trio reunites, but not without the requisite barbs and passive-aggressive silks. Meanwhile, Nigel (Stanley Tucci) returns with his dry wit, and Andy’s personal life gets a shakeup from Benji Barnes (Justin Theroux) and his wife Sasha (Lucy Liu). The plot twists are modest; the real drama is in the negotiations - of power, of loyalty, of what a legacy is worth when the runway is collapsing.

Let’s address the elephant in the room: the original The Devil Wears Prada is a near-perfect film. It’s tight, vicious, and emotionally precise. A sequel had to justify its existence without merely remixing the greatest hits. For the most part, Frankel and his team succeed, but the magic is inevitably more diffuse. The first film was about the terror of transformation; this one is about the melancholy of preservation.

Hathaway is wonderful. Her Andy has grown into someone who can hold her own in a boardroom, but the vulnerability that made her character relatable remains. When she locks eyes with Miranda across a conference table, the old power dynamic flickers - but now, Andy knows the game. Streep, of course, is operating on a plane few actors can reach. Her Miranda is still terrifying, but there’s a new, quiet desperation beneath the silver bob. In one key scene, she tells Andy, “The only thing worse than being irrelevant is pretending you’re not,” and the line lands like a guillotine.

The true scene-stealer is Emily Blunt. Her Emily Charlton, now a luxury-brand CEO, has shed the nasal whine for a cool, calculated authority. But when she sees an old photo of her and Andy in the Runway offices, a crack appears in the armor. Blunt plays that beat with raw, unspoken grace. Stanley Tucci’s Nigel remains the film’s cynical heart, delivering a soliloquy about the death of Runway that will resonate with anyone who has watched a beloved institution crumble.

The film’s weakness is its pacing. The middle act drags, weighed down by boardroom negotiations and a subplot involving Kenneth Branagh’s Stuart, a tech mogul who feels like a stock villain from a Silicon Valley satire. The ending, while satisfying, is a little too neat: a gala montage set to a remix of “Suddenly I See” that feels like the film is waving a flag saying, “Remember 2006?” It works, but it’s a crutch.

Pros

• Meryl Streep delivers another masterclass in restrained menace and hidden vulnerability.
• Emily Blunt steals every scene, transitioning her character from comic relief to complex boss.
• The film’s central theme - how power adapts to survive - is handled with surprising emotional depth.
• Anne Hathaway proves Andy’s growth is earned, not handed to her.
• Stanley Tucci’s gentle, world-weary wit provides the film’s moral compass.

Cons

• The middle third loses momentum, bogged down by corporate jargon and a subplot involving Kenneth Branagh’s tech bro.
• The script leans too heavily on nostalgic callbacks - the “cerulean sweater” monologue is referenced, but with diminishing returns.
• Justin Theroux and Lucy Liu are underutilized, their domestic drama feeling like filler.
• The finale relies on a gala set piece that feels rushed, as if the budget ran out.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is a worthy, if imperfect, sequel. It doesn’t try to out-Miranda its predecessor, which is wise. Instead, it offers a meditation on what happens when the game changes and the players refuse to leave the table. The clothes are still divine, the insults still sting, and the heart of the story - about a woman who learned to wear the armor before she learned to take it off - beats strong. Is it essential? No. But it’s a damn fine way to spend 119 minutes, especially if you’ve ever wondered what happened after Andy walked out of the Paris fountain. The devil may not have gotten new Prada, but she’s still managing to make a lasting impression.