Andy Sachs reunites with Miranda Priestly as they navigate their careers amid the decline of traditional magazine publishing. (from IMDb)

There are just some movies you don't see when they first come out, and it isn't until years later - for whatever reason - you decide to finally check them out. For The Devil Wears Prada, it seems like a movie that wouldn't be my cup of tea, and I went years only hearing it referenced in The Office by Michael Scott, and seeing clips of it here and there. Then, finally, when it was on streaming, I decided to just watch it. First of all, it has a fantastic cast. Anne Hathaway has transitioned well from family movies (like The Princess Diaries and Ella Enchanted) to more mature roles, and The Devil Wears Prada kind of feels like a stepping stone for her. Then there's the incredible Meryl Streep, who plays the fashion mogul Miranda Priestly with such fire; if it weren't for her, there wouldn't be a movie. Then Stanley Tucci is just lovable as Miranda's number two, Nigel, and Emily Blunt delivers a memorable performance as the glorified lackey, Emily. It's a movie that I'd say is good, and a solid mid-2000's entry, but I was still surprised to see it earn a sequel 20 years later.

So now we have the simply titled, The Devil Wears Prada 2, and instead of focusing on a new character or a passing of the torch (or any of those "who really cares?" sequel franchise tropes), The Devil Wears Prada 2 really does focus on the original characters 20 years later. 2006 was a year before the iPhone, and still before social media was a thing, so to use The Devil Wears Prada 2 to explore modern times within the world of fashion and a fashion magazine is an interesting direction. The sequel opens with Hathaway's Andy Sachs at an awards ceremony, accepting an award with her journalism team at a banquet. But just before she's expected to deliver an acceptance speech, her entire table is fired. This ultimately leads to her finding her way back to Priestly's Runway Magazine, and, alas, the sequel is born.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is a pretty good sequel for what it's trying to achieve. It does shoehorn some characters in, and has a very predictable romantic subplot (I mean... really. When Andy is scoping out a new apartment, I was thinking "She'll meet a new love interest as soon as Lily steps away and she enters the bedroom." She does.). But other than that, the story does a pretty good job feeling like a 20-years-later continuation of the first film. It doesn't hurt, either, that director David Frankel returns behind the camera. Granted, we've seen plenty of inexplicably poor sequels delivered by the same director, but here, Frankel seems to do a pretty good job recapturing the feel of the first one. It might seem like Hathaway has moved on to "bigger and better things" since the first Prada, but she slips right back into the high heels of Andy Sachs with ease, and if you enjoyed the first film even just a little, it's fun to see these characters on screen again.

While I have zero interest in the fashion world, the themes of The Devil Wears Prada 2 are pretty easy to relate to if you've ever been involved with the media world at all in the past couple decades. To see Priestly and Sachs struggle with retaining relevance and trying to survive social media trends and fickle attention spans is painfully relatable. It all made the story that much more interesting to me - given that this is my 30th year running this website - but it tries to handle all of it in a way that isn't too cynical or resistant to change. It frames everything through the lens of "times change, how do we adapt to survive?" Honestly, it's kind of amazing that Miranda would still be running Runway another 20 years since the last film (into her mid-70s), but it's fun to see the Andy/Miranda dynamic again, and how this modern, digital age has affected artforms.

A handful of new characters enter the scene for this film, and not all of them work super well. Justin Theroux is positively irritating as Benji (but I think I've yet to see him in role I've enjoyed, to be honest). He's supposed to be a filthy-rich goofball, but Theroux isn't quite able to make him at least enjoyable to endure. Lucy Liu has a small role as Benji's ex, Sasha, and while she does fine in the role, the character is so thin, just about anyone could have played the part. And then there's Andy's love interest, Peter, played by Patrick Brammall. I didn't really recognize him from anything, and he seemed charming enough as Peter to woo Andy, I suppose, but I'm still kind of surprised he was expected to be the guy who won her over. (I can almost hear Michael Bluth saying, "...Him?")

The content of The Devil Wears Prada 2 is pretty on par with the first one, however, this one makes up for no use of the "F" word in the first film by using it twice in the sequel. The first is a very pronounced use from Andy in a clip of her banquet rant as seen on social media, and the second is from Benji at the beginning of a party scene where we hear him talking before the camera pans to him. In other words - both feel entirely superfluous and unnecessary. The rest of the language is almost exclusively uses of "h*ll" or "Oh G-d" / "Oh my G-d." And Lady Gaga's song "Runway" makes an appearance in the film and then again during the credits, and the song clearly uses "b*tch" quite a few times, as well as "*ss" at least once (each time). Otherwise, there isn't any explicitly sexual content, just a couple quick references. We do see what appears to be a man in drag at a fashion show in a quick crowd shot early in the film, and then it's obvious that some of the fashion show attendees or even Runway employees are gay, but it's never addressed or focused on. And there's no real violence in the film, aside from a man collapsing unexpectedly at a banquet, and then the next scene is that man's funeral.

I do also want to add that there's a strange and unexpected scene when the Runway team goes to Italy and scopes out a historic room for hosting a party in. Andy stands before a painting of The Last Supper, and Miranda sidles her to comment on the painting with her. She mentions how there are a couple versions of the painting, and this one does not have the halo over the man in the middle (She doesn't say Jesus by name). She uses it to make a point about how man is imperfect and capable of underhanded deeds. The scene is used to inform Andy of something in that scene - and Miranda is meant to be shown to have less morals or care for others than someone like Andy - but it still lacks reverence and respect for Jesus and may be offensive to some viewers.

I probably wouldn't consider either The Devil Wears Prada to be must-see viewing or exceptional "dramedies" by any means, but it's performances like Meryl Streep's and Stanley Tucci's that make them particularly worthwhile. The sequel felt like it had just a smidge more heart than its predecessor, too. And while it probably isn't "better" than the 2006 original, The Devil Wears Prada 2 is a decent enough sequel that it should appease fans of the first one.

- John DiBiase (reviewed: 5/10/26)