The news that a sequel to The Devil Wears Prada is in the works has sent a ripple of excitement and panic through social media, almost as if Miranda Priestly herself is about to enter the room but somebody’s forgotten to correctly position the San Pellegrino. Because, what if something goes wrong?
The 2006 original, based on Lauren Weisberger’s book of the same name, is iconic. Sure, there are parts that feel a little problematic when viewed through 2024 eyes, but the movie, set at the fictional Runway magazine which everyone knows was really Vogue, was truly era-defining. After all, who doesn’t have a “Florals for spring? Groundbreaking” gif in their group chat repertoire?
But… a sequel? Didn’t we tie things up quite nicely, with Anne Hathaway’s Andy quitting the job “a million girls would kill for” to go off and be all cerebral and badly-dressed again?
That’s how Us remembers it, anyway. But slightly unnecessary sequels and remakes of crowd-pleasing movies and cult classics are a genre in their own right these days, and sometimes all you need to do is add an “s” to the title (Twisters) to get it signed off in Hollywood.
We already know a little about the proposed plot of the Devil Wears Prada sequel: apparently, Meryl Streep will be reprising her role as Priestly, who’s now struggling to keep Runway going in the digital age, and so enlists Emily Charlton, played by Emily Blunt, to help.
Currently, there’s still a question mark over whether Hathaway will be on board but, as much as we loved her as Andy, Miranda and Emily were always the movie’s true icons, so we can cope if she’s more of a cameo, àla Kim Cattrall in And Just Like That…
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So, if we were pitching Priestly our ideas for the new movie, what would we nervously suggest?
We want: Miranda to stay evil
The 2006 Runway office might have been toxic, but that was why it was such an entertaining setting for a big, glossy movie. We do not need to see Miranda Priestly with a 2020s makeover, wielding a “Be Kind” notebook, encouraging her team to take duvet days, cooing over toddlers who invade Zoom calls and, god forbid, wearing Adidas Sambas to work. This is a comedy, not a documentary, and it is not a requirement for the producers to be responsible; we promise we can enjoy movies about people being mean without becoming mean ourselves (if it helps, we can confirm that we watched Star Wars and did not end up fighting in space.)
We want: A more grown-up (but still iconic) Emily
Blunt has enthused many times about how her supporting but scene-stealing role as Emily Charlton in The Devil Wears Prada changed her life, and quite right too: she was brilliant! She was also, however, a big baby, being horrible to Andy merely for existing.
We think grown-up, 40-something Emily — who apparently, in the new movie, runs a brand which could help turn around Runway’s success — is probably pretty cool, so we hope she’s matured out of back-stabbing, eye-rolling and longing for stomach flu. But we also hope to see glimmers of her desperate, 20-something self in there somewhere, because she was the best.
We don’t want: A poor man’s Emily In Paris
There’s one, not insignificant problem with The Devil Wears Prada getting a sequel: both The Bold Type and Emily In Paris have come along in the past few years… and they’ve basically done the job already.
Sassy brunette protagonists who manage to be both deeply engaged with their fun, frivolous jobs and ever so slightly above it all? A series of cute but disappointing love interests who can ultimately not be trusted? Icy matriarchal boss babes who turn out to be a tiny bit human after all? Both shows tick all of these boxes, and their storylines about the worlds of social media, fashion and 21st century publishing feel natural, rather than shoehorned in. Can Miranda Priestly and the gang compete with the shows that wouldn’t exist without them?
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We want: Less body-shaming… to a point
One of the big criticisms of The Devil Wears Prada these days is around fat-shaming, and the fact that size 6 Andy was “too big” to work at a fashion magazine. Sure, these were exaggerations with a grain of truth in them: the culture at the time was focused on being super-skinny at all costs, especially in fashion.
These days, thank goodness, we’re all a lot more inclusive and celebratory — but if Miranda Priestly is suddenly putting plus-size models on the cover of her magazine, it will feel more than a little tokenistic. All eyes will be on the sequel to see how they stay true to the bitchy spirit of the original while not alienating a more accepting audience and acknowledging how culture has evolved. On that note, a little more racial diversity in the Runway office wouldn’t go amiss, either.
We don’t want: Tons of tech references
We’re guessing the Runway office is hybrid these days, so we’re sure there will be one or two Zoom-centric scenes in the sequel, but there is nothing more awkward than when modern-day tech is shoehorned into books, movies and TV shows to demonstrate how down with the kids they are. We’ll be watching any subplots about TikTok or ChatGPT with our fingers over our eyes due to the severe risk of cringe.
We might accept Miranda Priestly having an Instagram account, but that’s it (and it would almost certainly be managed by one of her long-suffering assistants.)
We want: To know what happened to Miranda’s twins
By our calculations, Miranda Priestly’s twin daughters, Caroline and Cassidy, would be well into their twenties by now, and that could be fun, right? Let’s not wade into whether or not they’re still JK Rowling fans, though …
We want: More sisterhood
OK, so we’ve already said we still want The Devil Wears Prada to be mean, but we’d like to see a little less girl-on-girl warfare too. The original gave off a prevailing vibe that women are out to get each other, while a white gay man — Nigel, played by Stanley Tucci — was Andy’s only ally at work. Let’s see Miranda and Emily at each other’s throats where we can, but how about giving them some supportive female friends too, rather than colleagues who would poison their kombucha at the earliest opportunity?
We don’t want: Terrible boyfriends, no matter how good their hair is
Ugh, Nate. These days, Andy’s unsupportive boyfriend, played by Adrian Grenier, is widely regarded to be the true villain of The Devil Wears Prada but, given that he toddled off to Boston at the end, we doubt there is a place for him in the sequel, even if Hathaway does sign up. If there is, though, we hope it’s a subplot about how these days he writes a Substack newsletter offering hot takes on politics to his 14 subscribers… none of whom are Andy.
That’s all.
