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The Devil Wears Prada 2 Review: It Still Hasn't Cut Ties With Those It Critiques

Hotly-anticipated The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026) arrives 20 years on from David Frankel’s original 2006 feature—this time with a critique on media consolidation and the threat of the digital age on traditional journalism. Dressed to the nines, the big four reunite to take on billionaire buyouts, but does the film muddle the message it so fashionably conveys?

By Alexandra Hill

oes the Devil wear Prada, or does corporate-owned media? Witty, important, and thoroughly well-dressed comes The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026)—David Frankel’s much-anticipated sequel to his original high-fashion high-stakes The Devil Wears Prada (2006). Written by Aline Brosh McKenna, the fashion-focused original has since pushed journalism into the spotlight, as it interrogates how a magazine can survive in the digital age of media consolidation and mass layoffs—all steeped in Balenciaga.

20 years on from the first film, ex-Runway assistant Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) is working as a successful newspaper journalist until she is unexpectedly laid-off just as she is commended at a journalism award gala. Through some industry connections, Andy becomes the features editor at Runway magazine where uncompromising editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) is still at the helm. Runway fashion director and all-round warm hug Nigel Kipling (Stanley Tucci) is still Miranda’s right-hand man, while Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt) has moved on from her position as Miranda’s assistant to become a senior executive at Dior.

Frankel’s sequel serves as a natural continuation from The Devil Wears Prada, which was loosely based on Lauren Weisberger’s 2003 novel of the same name in which Weisberger documented her own experience as an assistant to Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Riotously fun and packed with prowess, The Devil Wears Prada—which was screened as the opening night film at the 2006 Los Angeles Film Festival—gave its successor big shoes to fill.

Image: via Buzzfeed (https://www.buzzfeed.com/jadagomez/devil-wears-prada-2-simone-ashley)

And big it became. The Devil Wears Prada 2’s pre-marketing $100 million budget allowed for a more creative and experimental visual palette, soundtracked with high-energy female-led pop powered by Lady Gaga, Doechii, Dua Lipa, and Sienna Spiro. Costume designer Molly Rogers also served a series of iconically explorative looks playing on contemporary trends: Andy, Emily, and Miranda are steeped in feminine menswear while new assistant Amari (Simone Ashley) wears a shirt made entirely of ties—not to mention Miranda’s iconic Dries Van Noten tassel jacket which Rogers reveals almost got axed for being too noisy.

But it was this refusal to be quiet about contemporary issues that made The Devils Wears Prada 2 so important. After Andy’s layoff, most of the film is spent fighting media consolidation and billionaire buyouts that are systematically hollowing out journalism, replacing media integrity with clickbait and algorithm-led content. A superb comic element was Emily’s new tech billionaire boyfriend Benji Barnes (Justin Theroux) who—with an uncanny resemblance to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos—essentially admits we should allow the future to envelop us “like the lava of Pompeii”. Let destruction ensue.

Against this, Brosh McKenna’s characterisation of the main four felt down-to-earth and human. While at odds, Streep and Blunt’s respective performance was heartfelt, with the motivation behind their characters’ self-preservation in the face of their professional past and uncertain future thoroughly fleshed out. Even Nigel’s moment in the spotlight left no dry eye in the room.

While The Devil Wears Prada 2 does not condemn the digital age, we are asked if we can resist the modernisation lava just a little longer. But looking into the film’s wider publicity, did we really need so many brand partnerships and product placements? Diet Coke, TRESemmé, Smartwater, and even Google Gemini were official collaborators, with adverts featuring actors themselves littered anywhere and everywhere. Watch this. Buy this. Drink Diet Coke. Use AI.

In advertising Google Gemini to the max, the messaging gets muddled. In one of the adverts, Jin Chao (Helen J. Shen)—Andy’s ditzy and chronically online Gen Z intern—uses Gemini’s image search to find the outfit Miranda needs for a shoot. Asides from the problematic phone-addict trope maiming Gen Z as terrible workers, is advocating for AI really aligning with that message of resistance?

Packed with over 40 celebrity cameos, The Devil Wears Prada 2 still hasn’t cut ties with those it critiques. But that doesn’t take away from the delightfully humorous feeling that persisted even through the most poignant moments. And of course it makes sense that Lady Gaga doesn’t get on with Miranda. That’s all.