Words by JANE CROWTHER
Twenty years after aspiring journalist Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) finally earned the grudging respect of Runway magazine maven – and thinly disguised Anna Wintour avatar – Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) via frenemy and tough love shenanigans with assistant Emily (Emily Blunt) and stylist Nigel (Stanley Tucci), the quartet returns. Of course. In the light of Maverick suiting up again and the SATC girls stepping back into their Manolos, legacy sequels and nostalgia-core is big business (Dirty Dancing revisit incoming). The question of whether beloved characters should be exhumed is moot, it’s whether the 2.0 can stand on its own feet as something more than mere fan service, with plenty of cocklewarming callbacks.
Devil 2 manages the trick, but only just. In 2026 Andy is a serious award-winning journalist who’s just been made redundant as her paper downsizes, and returns to the Runway offices as features editor after Miranda suffers near-cancellation for her accidental promotion of sweat shops. Nigel is still consigliere to Miranda, Emily is now the head of Dior. There’s a new assistant, Amari, who schools Miranda in what she can’t say during her withering put-downs (Simone Ashley) and a plot that revolves around Andy having to prove her worth to Miranda again as publishing becomes irrelevant in a world of social media. There’s fashion, Diet Coke placement, celebrity cameos (Donatella Versace and Gaga working better than others) plus an awkward romantic sub-plot and a Justin Theroux turn that both feel surplus to requirement.
It’s hitting all the right notes of the original (female empowerment, OTT fashion, a nice nod to cerulean) and Streep does get to flex that calm delivery and imperious stare while MVP Blunt brings her excellent comedic timing (biggest laugh is her Italian gag with Versace). But the story situates Miranda as a victim from the start and diminishes her bite, which was a huge part of the deliciousness of the first film. Though she has more fashion, she has fewer words; leaving Andy and Emily to spat in a corporate takeover narrative that doesn’t feel high stakes enough.
Though the denouement of the characters is placed very firmly in this decade and current media landscape, it feels non-essential to non-fans – the pleasure to be found in seeing ‘Spring Florals’ as the theme of the Runway Ball at the Met, understanding why one should never go upstairs in Miranda’s brownstone, the significance of soup in the canteen and the return of a revamped lumpy blue sweater. And Milan looks glam for a third-reel romp. It’s all perfectly entertaining, without being, as Miranda would say, groundbreaking.
Words by JANE CROWTHER
Pictures courtesy of 20th Century Studios
The Devil Wears Prada 2 is in cinemas now
