When a film like The Devil Wears Prada 2 returns to the screen after twenty years, it naturally raises questions about whether the story has something meaningful to say or if it’s just a nostalgia trap. Going into this movie, I was skeptical because I didn’t think this was a story that needed a sequel. Too many sequels rely on familiar characters instead of telling a fully original and well-developed story that actually satisfies an audience, but that doesn’t mean a sequel can’t work.

The original The Devil Wears Prada captured a specific cultural moment with sharp writing, strong performances, and a clear identity. So, that sets expectations pretty high as we head into this sequel, especially if it’s been two decades since the original film. So, let’s look at why The Devil Wears Prada 2 as a sequel was so surprising and how it avoids falling into that trap.

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A Story That Doesn’t Look Back

What makes this film work is that it doesn’t try to recreate the past. We’ve already seen that story, and the sequel has the sense to continue the story in a way that feels natural for where these characters are twenty years later. Andy, Miranda, and Nigel are not the same people frozen in time. Their lives have evolved beyond their original satirical roles, and they have different life goals that have shaped who they are today.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 taps into nostalgia, but it uses it in service of the story rather of relying on it for ticket sales. So, what changed?

What becomes clear pretty quickly is that while Andy may feel like the central character, this is really Miranda’s story. That choice gives the film weight while becoming one of its biggest problems.

What we get are characters who are no longer trying to prove themselves in the way they were in the original. They are all accomplished adults who are navigating careers with decades of experience behind them, and the tension comes from how those careers are shifting under their feet do to circumstances that are beyond their control. There is no traditional villain here, even though you might think that Miranda is framed to play that role. Instead, the pressure comes from life’s changes and from the reality that the world they built their success on no longer operates in the same way.

Character Growth as the Center of the Film

While The Devil Wears Prada 2 is set within the fashion world, the sequel focuses more on how the characters have evolved in our modern era, making their lives feel more relatable to ordinary people as we face the challenges of today’s society.

Andy Sachs returns as a confident adult with decades of success behind her. While she is returning to Runway, she isn’t the young outsider trying to survive. She operates with the clarity and experience of a professional journalist who knows herself well as she helps guide Runway through its PR nightmare. We see her adjusting to her new life at a magazine that has already transitioned into an online publication that also has a print magazine rather than the globally iconic fashion magazine that she left 20 years earlier, and we see how that shift forces her to relearn how to tell the story of Runway and the fashion world that it dominates.

However, this is also where the film begins to pull its punches.

Andy’s journey feels too manicured and protected. While she struggles, she never really fails. When setbacks happen, they resolve quickly and without causing her or anyone else that much pain. Even her biggest moment of failure is more of a betrayal by someone else, that shifts the blame because she was trying to do something noble and good. As a result, she succeeds in what she sets out to do despite how she misjudges the implications of her choices, and while this retains her likeability, it softens the impact of those moments and limits her growth as a character. This is why her story never quite carries the same sense of risk that defined her arc in the original.

Nigel continues to serve as a force of stability for Miranda through the chaos, offering both experience and emotional support during one of the most uncertain periods of her career. His character represents a life shaped by dedication to his craft and his friendship with Miranda. There’s something compelling about seeing a kind, capable man who has built a career around what he loves, while also quietly raising the question of what that dedication and savvy may have cost him professionally.

Miranda Priestly is simply the most compelling character in the film because she’s no longer defined solely by her unquestioned authority. We see how time has changed her, making her more vulnerable in a modern world that isn’t built for someone like her. She still carries the presence and precision that made her iconic, but there is a clear awareness that the world she once dominated has, if not moved on, has made it clear that her place in it is far less stable. That is a fascinating character conflict for someone at her level of expertise and accomplishment. The more the film progresses, the clearer it becomes that this is Miranda’s story.

A Moment That Captures Everything

There is a scene that illustrates Miranda’s evolution perfectly and I think this is where she steals the movie. Andy confronts her about an issue with Nigel, and at first she brushes it off, but then pauses as she realizes that while she sees him every day, she hasn’t really seen him in a long time. Then, she turns to really looks at him, watching him from a distance as he works, steadily and without supervision. He is her rock and understanding dawns.

The scene doesn’t rely on dialogue. It unfolds through performance as Miranda watches Nigel. In that moment, her expression shifts to recognition and a recalibration of not only how she sees him, but of their relationship itself. This kind of moment is a reminder of what great acting can achieve, and this happens multiple times in the film. Meryl Streep conveys an entire emotional transition without a single word as her eyes widen slightly, her lips shift, and the tension in her face tightens before relaxing.

There’s an interview where Glen Powell shares some advice Tom Cruise gave him, which basically comes down to this idea that you don’t wait for great roles. You take the role you have, whatever it is, and you make it great. That’s exactly what Meryl Streep is doing here. That’s the power of human expertise, and in this case, that’s great acting!

A Changing Industry and a Changing World

One of the things I appreciated most about The Devil Wears Prada 2 was how it captures the strains and stresses that social media has placed on print journalism, as well as journalism in general. As someone who works at a magazine, I can tell you they nailed how modern technology, and the way society uses it, has reshaped what Runway used to be into an online publication driven by a social media engine – that also has a reduced print magazine.

The need to survive in the 2020s highlights how fragile the communication industry has become as teams are pushed for higher performance under the constant threat of being sold, downsized, or cut back.

We also see how those changes have affected Runway’s corporate culture, moderating Miranda’s hard-driving, uncompromising vision into a more constrained version of herself. Her passion is still there, but it’s constrained by new social norms. Instead of biting incisive critiques targeted at producing excellence at the cost of kindness, she’s forced to moderate her comments to fight the fights that she can afford to win.

Miranda’s position in this environment highlights the gap between her past authority and her present relevance. The skills that once defined her success are no longer culturally acceptable, and the film explores how those pressures reshape both her professional choices when faced with change and her personal relationships with those closest to her.

Andy’s return is the catalyst that forces Miranda to see her current self more clearly, especially in comparison to the version of Miranda that Andy has carried with her over the years. Their dynamic creates space for moments of introspection, while also showing that Miranda’s capacity for strategic thinking and business instincts has not been diminished, only constrained.

I’ll admit I’m leaning into this more than most viewers probably will because this layer operates more as subtext than something front and center. Still, it feels like the fuel for the story engine that drives the changes we are seeing in these characters, and it adds a level of relevance that you don’t usually expect from a sequel.

Where the Film Falls Short

Despite its strengths, the film doesn’t fully commit to the level of complexity it suggests. We get surface-level glimpses of the struggles that each character faces, even when the consequences could significantly impact their futures.

Andy’s challenges, in particular, don’t carry the same weight as Miranda’s, even though she’s positioned as the central character. Her setbacks are real but limited, and they resolve too quickly to build meaningful pressure. As a result, we don’t get the emotional payoff that comes from watching a character who is truly pushed to their limit.

This issue extends beyond Andy with The Devil Wears Prada 2 introducing meaningful stakes, from professional risks to personal betrayals, but those tensions are smoothed over before they fully land. They are still satisfying, but the story never builds the level of pressure and payoff needed to deliver the emotional resolution that it could have hit.

As a result, Andy doesn’t experience the kind of transformation that makes us root for her in the same way we did in the original. Meanwhile, most of the emotional weight shifts toward Miranda, giving her the emotional payoff in the film, which feels misdirected since Andy is billed as the lead.

If the film had allowed Andy’s journey to be more difficult, or had more fully centered on Miranda’s arc, it could have pushed beyond the surface-level conflicts. As it stands, the film still works as a lighthearted, feel-good comedy, but you can see the bones of a story that could have gone much further to be so much more meaningful.

Recommendation

So, is The Devil Wears Prada 2 worth the price of the ticket? If you liked the original, this is an easy yes.

What makes this film work is that it understands that a sequel needs to do more than revisit familiar territory, and it actually follows through on philosophy. It successfully continues the story in a way that feels natural for these characters, even if it doesn’t fully reach the potential that it could have achieved.

Again, at its core, this is Miranda’s story because it’s about what happens when someone who once defined an industry has been downsized by social norms and made to follow the same rules as everyone else. That’s what gives the film its weight, and that’s what makes it feel relevant.

At the same time, it still works as a sequel because it gives us a strong story that reconnects us with the characters we love while giving them room to evolve. The Devil Wears Prada 2 is funny, engaging, and at times more reflective than you expect. While it may not go as far as it could, it’s worth the price of admission and earns its place as a sequel.

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