‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ Is The Rare Hollywood Sequel That Actually Respects Its Audience

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Hollywood nostalgia bait cash-grab sequels are out of control, but “The Devil Wears Prada 2” respects its audience and the original story. And yes, I have to confess that this particular sequel was practically engineered in a lab to be sentimental for people like me.

I was nine years old when the first film came out (just a couple of years younger than Miranda Priestly’s “Harry Potter”-loving twins), and I watched it at sleepovers and movie nights with friends, enthralled by Andy Sachs’ glamorous life working at a New York City magazine. Now, 20 years later, I joined one of my girlfriends and a gaggle of other ladies (and plus ones) to watch the sequel on opening night. It didn’t disappoint. 

The plot follows a familiar pattern: Andy (Anne Hathaway) once again finds herself at Runway magazine (a stand-in for Vogue), butting heads with its legendary and ruthless editor, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). This time, modernity has truly set in. Andy has just been laid off from her job at a serious news organization, and she has gone viral for making an impassioned speech in defense of journalism. (That falls a little flat in the year of our Lord 2026, of course, but we’ll let it slide.)

Miranda’s higher-ups have brought Andy back in hopes that she can restore some credibility in the wake of a fast-fashion scandal. Suddenly, Andy, Miranda, and Nigel (Stanley Tucci) are reunited, with Simone Ashley serving up dry wit as Miranda’s current assistant, Amari. 

Times have changed, and Miranda has gotten one too many HR complaints for chucking her coat in the general direction of her various underlings. But she has proven too big to cancel, as several jokes are made at the expense of her exasperated assistant and her attempts at language policing.

Staring disapprovingly at a washed-out fashion shoot, Miranda prods, “The models were encouraged to mill around like starving goats in the parking lot of a methadone clinic in New Jersey?”

When Amari clears her throat, Miranda doubles down: “What am I not allowed to say? Methadone? New Jersey?”

The film is brimming with beautiful people wearing beautiful clothes, and it’s chock-full of cameos, featuring everyone from Donatella Versace and Lady Gaga to Jenna Bush Hager — with one notable exception. Andy’s old boyfriend, Nate (Adrian Grenier), who the internet has decided was the real villain of the original, did not make it to the sequel. That’s probably for the best. The film is only slightly heavy-handed with its callbacks to the original (including the belts that are “so different,” the inviolability of Miranda’s staircase, and Andy’s cerulean sweater).

The plot is less madcap than that of the first film (who can forget when Andy scrambles to get her hands on the unpublished “Harry Potter” manuscript for Miranda’s twins?), though it is still full of funny moments, mostly thanks to Miranda’s and Nigel’s devastating criticisms. After lamenting that Runway is now online-only, Nigel tells Andy he used to get weeks to travel the world for a magazine spread.

“Now,” he says, “I’m lucky if I get two days … to shoot content for people to scroll past whilst they pee.”

“The Devil Wears Prada 2” meets the modern era and its discontents — the villain in a tech bro in the vein of Jeff Bezos — without either getting too political or too depressing. The threat of AI has arrived; the billionaire is hoping to acquire Runway and outsource its work to artificial intelligence. Miranda’s appeals to “a commitment to beauty, artistry, the best in human achievement” fall on deaf ears. But it’s a comedy, and of course, all is well in the end. 

This sequel manages to update its predecessor for a more digital world without too many hokey references to Gen Z or TikTok. The new landscape, however, proves that the halcyon days of the female journalist with the cool writing gig and the unattainably large New York City apartment — think “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” “Sex in the City,” “Confessions of a Shopaholic” — are over. Some other prevailing archetype for the rom-com is destined to take its place, and audiences are ready for the genre’s revival. 

Fortunately, Hollywood seems to have learned a lesson from the success of the “Barbie” movie, which is that women will go to the theater with other women (and indulgent husbands) for a film that promises beauty, escapism, and hopefully a little bit of romance. We don’t need more gritty realism or political lectures. We want to see Meryl Streep pursing her lips disapprovingly at Anne Hathaway’s wide-lipped smile and Stanley Tucci rattling off the names of designers as he grabs a pair of sparkly pants for his protégé.

To quote Cyndi Lauper, girls just want to have fun. And “The Devil Wears Prada 2” delivers it.