The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026)

I will be the first to admit that I am a creature of comfort who doesn't understand fashion, let alone haute couture. But that doesn’t mean I did not like The Devil Wears Prada when it first came out, back in 2006. I even bought and read the book, despite it being about a world I had and still have zero interest in.

Like everyone else who liked the original and understood its lasting popularity throughout the years, I was eager to see the sequel. Even if, to be completely honest, I didn't see why it needed one. The first movie gave everyone their perfect "happily ever after": Miranda Priestly remained the iconic, untouchable editor-in-chief of Runway, Andy Sachs landed her dream job as a serious journalist, and Emily finally secured her place as Miranda's assistant.

My review's title is a nod to Shakespeare and is entirely deliberate. The original movie portrayed the high-end fashion world as a brutal arena of plotting, backstabbing, and betrayal, and most of Shakespeare’s plays depend on these plot devices. The Devil Wears Prada 2 uses the same formula and is, story-wise, almost identical. Once again, we plunge into the cutthroat world of Runway, where to get and stay at the top, you must let go of your principles and moral sense. The only thing different is that due to the digital era, Runway is not a print magazine anymore, but one that is running online.

The real problem about The Devil Wears Prada 2 is that while the first movie was driven by genuine personal and professional growth of all the main characters, this sequel drags everyone backward. Any positive character development they have achieved in 2006 is dialed way back.

Let’s take, as a first example, the main character, Andy Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway. The movie begins with her getting fired from her job as a serious journalist while, ironically, she’s receiving a prestigious award for her work. As luck would have it, she is immediately invited back to Runway, this time as a features writer, a job she gladly accepts. But wasn’t her entire dream to escape the shallow waters of fashion and write about real-world issues? Why is she so eager to come back?

Worse still, the movie asks us to believe that Andy saves Runway’s relevance through her writing. Another character even remarks that her pieces bring "gravitas" to the magazine. Yet, we never actually see what she is writing about. Aside from a single interview with a socially conscious billionaire played by Lucy Liu, her brilliant articles remain completely invisible to the audience.

Emily, Miranda’s assistant, played by Emily Blunt, has regressed just as badly. She has moved on from being Miranda’s assistant to running the retail department for Dior and is dating a billionaire. But her personality has taken a total nosedive. The superficial, fashion-obsessed assistant who showed signs of growing a conscience at the end of the first movie has been replaced by someone even more shallow and status-driven than before.