Inside the Making of 20th Century Studios' 'The Devil Wears Prada 2'

Inside the Making of 20th Century Studios' 'The Devil Wears Prada 2'

In the summer of 2006, 20th Century Studios released a comedy-drama that went on to become a cultural phenomenon with The Devil Wears Prada - one of the most iconic and beloved films of the last 20 years.

Thanks to Meryl Streep's Academy Award©-nominated turn as Miranda Priestly - the love-to-hate and hate-to-love editor-in-chief of fashion magazine mainstay Runway - and classic performances from future Disney Legend Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, and Emily Blunt, the film's lines are still quoted, its scenes still memed, and its characters still deeply embedded in the cultural lexicon.

And now, they're back.

20th Century Studios' The Devil Wears Prada 2 arrives exclusively in theaters on May 1, reuniting the original main cast - Streep, Hathaway, Blunt, and Tucci - with director David Frankel and screenwriter/executive producer Aline Brosh McKenna. Produced by Wendy Finerman, the sequel also introduces an all-new ensemble including Kenneth Branagh, Simone Ashley, Justin Theroux, Lucy Liu, B.J. Novak, Caleb Hearon, and Helen J. Shen, with Tracie Thoms and Tibor Feldman reprising their roles from the original.

A Story That Earned Its Sequel

Despite the original film's enormous success, the creative team resisted the temptation of a quick follow-up. For years, they were content to let the story stand on its own. What changed their minds wasn't nostalgia - it was the world itself.

"It's not meant to just be a love letter to the fans. It had to be something, a story that we found meaty and something we could really talk about how the world has changed," Brosh McKenna said.

The seismic shifts in media and the ever-evolving dynamics of the workplace provided fertile ground for a new chapter. In the sequel, Miranda faces a magazine industry in flux and a scandal that threatens the legacy of Runway. Andy Sachs, now a seasoned journalist, is recruited back to the magazine as its features editor, while Emily Charlton has ascended to a senior role at a luxury brand whose backing could be the key to Runway's survival.

"It's not nostalgia," Frankel added about the purpose of the film. "It's curiosity."

That distinction - between nostalgia and curiosity - runs through every aspect of the sequel's DNA. The film is an exploration of what happens to these characters when the world they built their identities around begins to shift beneath their feet.

But, according to Brosh McKenna, the allure of the sequel is "also the joy of seeing the characters seeing each other for the first time in 20 years."

And once the cast reassembled, the chemistry that made the original so electric reignited instantly.

"They're great movie stars… When they were 22, Annie and Emily, they were clearly movie stars. Meryl is a huge star. Stanley is a big star," Frankel said. "Much of the success of the movie is owed to their charisma, their talent, their humor, the depth of the characterizations."

Stepping Back into Iconic Shoes

For Stanley Tucci, returning to Nigel Kipling after two decades was a personal pleasure.

"I love that there's a sort of subtlety to him, and I loved how he's so completely devoted to Meryl's character and to Runway and to quality as a whole," Tucci said. "For me to be able to jump into it again after 20 years - I'm not really jumping into it because I'm too old to do that - but sort of stagger into it again after 20 years was the great pleasure."

Emily Blunt, meanwhile, relished the opportunity to explore just how far Emily Charlton's ambition has taken her - and at what price.

"I find her to be such a delicious person to play, and I wanted to see how she handled power because she was sort of left doing a lot of the grunt work. She assumed she had power, and I guess she did sort of Lord it over Andy, but it was a rather superficial, visible power rather than like an authentic one," Blunt said. "She's a bit of a survivalist, and she's probably lost a lot of her moral conscience - if she ever had a shred of it in the first place."

Blunt continued, "I loved seeing how she had adapted and evolved in the digital era of fashion. And, not that she'd sold her soul to the devil in that way, but I think she just had made it really work for herself. And I find her to be an incredibly ambitious person. But to what cost?"

Kicking Off the Summer Moviegoing Season

By kicking off the summer movie season, The Devil Wears Prada 2 holds a prominent position within The Walt Disney Company's powerhouse 2026 film slate, which also includes Lucasfilm's Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu on May 22, Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 5 on June 19, Disney's live-action Moana on July 10, and Marvel Studios' Avengers: Doomsday on December 19.

The film's marketing campaign has already delivered historic results: the full trailer amassed 222 million views in 24 hours, making it the most-watched trailer in 20th Century Studios' history. That momentum has been amplified by a slate of high-profile, Miranda-worthy brand partnerships - from Dior and Mercedes-Benz to Diet Coke and Grey Goose to L'Oréal and Valentino Frangrance.

The sequel's premiere on April 20 at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall in New York City was a star-studded affair, with cast and filmmakers joined by Lady Gaga and luminaries from the worlds of fashion and music, including Marc Jacobs, Naomi Campbell, and Heidi Klum.

In a first for the studio, the event was livestreamed across Disney+, Hulu, ABC News, and TikTok - a cross-platform activation that underscores how the film's marketing has been woven throughout Disney's media ecosystem.

So, when the lights go down on May 1, audiences won't just be watching a sequel. They'll be witnessing what happens when curiosity, craft, and two decades of cultural affection converge into something that feels both familiar and bracingly new.

20th Century Studios' The Devil Wears Prada 2 debuts exclusively in theaters May 1, 2026. The original film is streaming now on Disney+ and Hulu.