‘Devil Wears Prada’ sequel is in the works with Meryl Streep

Finally, a ‘Devil Wears Prada’ sequel is in the works, with Miranda Priestly facing the dystopian post-aughts realities of the magazine business. 

For years, there have been dreams of a sequel to The Devil Wears Prada, the 2006 classic starring Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep, based on Lauren Weisberger’s 2003 roman à clef about working for Anna Wintour during the heyday of the magazine business. Over the weekend, Elton John’s musical adaptation starring Vanessa Williams began previews in Plymouth, England, in advance of a West End opening in October. Now I hear that the film’s Oscar-winning producer, Wendy Finerman, has convinced Streep and Emily Blunt to sign on for a sequel to the hit film. (I don’t know if Anne Hathaway, who said in April that she doesn’t think a sequel would happen, is involved.) 

Anyway, I’m told that Disney has given Finerman the okay to hire the original film’s screenwriter, Aline Brosh McKenna, now that Streep is in. The storyline being discussed focuses on Miranda Priestly, Streep’s Wintour-esque protagonist, at the end of her career, facing the decline of traditional magazine publishing. She’s forced to go head-to-head with her former assistant, Blunt’s Emily Charlton, now a high-powered executive at a Kering or LVMH-style luxury group, whose advertising dollars Priestly desperately needs. (A rep for Disney declined to comment.)

I’m pretty against getting the band back together, and don’t really care much about this movie overall, even if I think it does a better job than any other film in trying to capture the pettiness and power of the fashion industry. Hollywood is notorious for getting the fashion industry wrong, or at least not exactly right. One important distinction: In Hollywood, where you’re constantly pitching yourself, people are shameless. In fashion, they are shameful. Fashion movies often portray this as snobbery rather than insecurity, and therefore miss the mark. Zoolander, a flat-out satire, probably comes closest to the truth. 

However, I expect the increased intermingling will produce better fare as the fashion industry, itself, starts producing more films and television, and, not incidentally, taking majority stakes in Hollywood agencies. Interest in the industry, which generates something like 2 percent of the world’s G.D.P., is only increasing and becoming more sophisticated. (In some cases, at least. The New Look didn’t work. Emily in Paris does.) This proposed storyline for the Prada sequel obviously speaks to me. And hey, look, Top Gun: Maverick was the best thing to happen to popular culture in 2022, so fan service can work when everyone involved is excellent.