What Convinced Meryl Streep To Return For The Devil Wears Prada 2

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The Devil Wears Prada 2's Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly

Published May 1, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT

While Meryl Streep had previously sworn off sequels, calls for a return to The Devil Wears Prada universe grew louder over the last decade since she made that bold declaration.

And though for some time, talk of a sequel was just exactly that, Streep's return to Mama Mia with Mama Mia 2 seemed to soften her stance on sequels altogether, paving the way for The Devil Wears Prada 2. The film sees Streep reprise her role as Miranda Priestly, the hard-to-impress editor-in-chief at Runway magazine. Loosely modeled after Vogue's Anna Wintour, while the first film saw softer sides to Miranda at times, it ended with her still making Runway the main character in her life. And the sequel still sees some of that, with Priestley navigating career challenges amid traditional magazine publishing's decline.

ScreenRant's Liam Crowley spoke to the film's writer and director about the highly anticipated film and what it took to convince Streep to return for the sequel.

It Was The Film's Fresh Take On The Fashion Magazine World That Got Streep To Sign On

Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, and Stanley Tucci looking forward in The Devil Wears Prada 2.

Though it was Streep who was quoted swearing off sequels, the screenwriter of The Devil Wears Prada 2, Aline Brosh McKenna, who also penned the first film, said she was apprehensive as well, as was director David Frankel. However, it was an "inspiring" vision, Frankel said, McKenna had for the second film that got them all on board.

Aline Brosh McKenna: I think we're all on record multiple times saying we wouldn't do a sequel. I think I said that in 2021!

David Frankel: I think Aline came in with a great vision for the second movie, and it was inspiring to me. And I think Meryl was persuaded that there was an opportunity to say something completely new about these characters and about the world that they inhabit. The world of magazines has changed so dramatically in 20 years that we were talking about a very different topic.

Miranda Priestley Might Not Be The Film's Antagonist After All

Meryl Streep's Miranda in The Devil Wears Prada 2 trailer

While Miranda Priestley was seen as the "devil" in the franchise's first film, the star-studded sequel tones down her villainous qualities, making her a layered, more three-dimensional character. Still, that tension between Miranda and Anne Hathaway's Andy is there in the sequel, with the pair, once again, finding themselves at odds and on different moral planes.

Aline Brosh McKenna: I think that, in terms of an obstacle, she's still an obstacle for Andy. And she's still the person who sparks Andy to examine her own moral compass. That's what she did in the first movie. The first movie was very much a Faust story.

In this, she challenges her right from the beginning because Andy is brought in not at Miranda's behest, so Andy represents this corporate interference that Miranda doesn't want. So, they have a natural opposition. But I think you can point to several things that are devil figures in this movie.

What's not so devlish in this sequel, however, is the film's fashion. ScreenRant also spoke to some of the cast and costume designer, Molly Rogers, about how the fashion in the film has evolved over the last 20 years, particularly in an era where fast fashion is king.

How The Fashion In The Devil Wears Prada 2 Has Evolved Since The First Film

Miranda Priestley posing with her hand on her hip and sunglasses on in the elevator in Devil Wears Prada 2

Molly Rogers: The world is so much faster, and I have to shop totally differently. My shopping process has been turned on its head over the years. I work with assistants who can sit at a computer for 12 hours a day, shop, and throw things in a cart - and it doesn't bother them. It's just Zoom, zoom, zoom, looking, looking, digital, digital. I can do that. I don't find it interesting. I like to go out, meet people, and touch clothes. It's totally a different world.

Pat [Field] and I, on the first movie, made appointments and went into showrooms. I don't remember digital lookbooks. You went and looked at things, you touched a Dior jacket... Different. Not better or worse today. Just moving real quick.

As for how Rogers decides what each character should wear, she said she leans heavily on the script to place The Devil Wears Prada 2's fashion-forward cast in the right look and the right brand for them, and that also means not having any of the characters wear the same thing.

Molly Rogers: I read the script. That's helpful. But I don't like when a writer says, "And she's carrying a blah, blah bag." It's like, "Well, that's nice for a placeholder, but you don't really know what brand she should be..." It's fine, but it makes me nervous when they have notes like that. But I read the script. I talk to the director and the writer, who have been more immersed in the project for much longer than I have. I get a wealth of information from them before I even touch a doorknob to a store, and I create digital decks of images to show and pitch to the actors. "This is what I'm attracted to. How do you relate or feel? Do you connect to this brand, or this tassel jacket, you like it?" It's very much a communication because you need a very defined and focused roadmap.

Before you go into a store, like if there's 20 white blouses on a rack, I could — and anybody that works for me — pick the one for Miranda, the one for Annie, Andrea, and the one for Emily. There's no cross-pollination. They each wear different things. None of those three women wears a bow, let's just say that.

The most back-and-forth Rogers has had when it comes to finding the right look has been with Hathaway, with the costume designer revealing that her career evolution from the first film to the second has had a major impact on her wardrobe.

Molly Rogers: Ms. Hathaway — her character had the most layers. That was a good one. A cheerful one. She's moving up in life. The other characters were still entrenched in this industry, but she had gone and traveled the world as a reporter. She had been a hunter-gatherer, and she needed to have pieces of vintage. She needed a worn leather messenger bag as a reporter. She was much more layered.

We had many conversations; much more. I think it was quicker to arrive at Miranda Priestly's silhouette than perhaps how Andrea was showing that she had been out in the world and away from their encapsulated, rare-air fashion lives.

Everything Else The Devil Wears Prada 2 Cast & Team Said About The Film

Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada 2

ScreenRant: Justin Theroux's a character who mentions nonsensical space travel, not to mention buying a publication and running it into the ground. Is he inspired by anyone?

Aline Brosh McKenna: He is one of the funniest people. I had a Zoom with Justin to talk about the script, which I like to do when actors come on, just sort of shoot the breeze. I said to him, "I think that he is not drinking water." He stopped drinking water because he feels like he doesn't need it. Without missing a beat, Justin said, "Yeah, I'm running an aqua deficit." And I was like, "That's it."

He's so delightfully silly. He brought this silliness and this enthusiasm to this character that I just adore.

ScreenRant: Jin shadows Anne Hathaway throughout this film and even remarks at a certain point that she wants to be exactly like her when she ascends in this industry. For you as an actor, getting to work so closely with Anne, what did you learn about the craft by going through that experience?

Helen J. Shen: It was amazing to watch Anne not put any labels on herself, I guess. At that point in her career, she's done so many different things. She's been in musicals, she's done drama and romantic comedy. I really appreciated how, no matter what she's done before, it's not defining her. She uses it, and she's learned a lot from all those other processes.

I feel like getting to watch her between takes, just being an artist in every full sense of the word, being a boss, leading and taking stories, and wanting to be a producer on her own stuff, is so inspiring to me. You can take that kind of thing into your own hands, and then it's boundless, whatever you do.

ScreenRant: Each of your characters has the most insane wardrobes on screen. How close are your personal wardrobes to your characters?

Caleb Hearon: Mine's far.

Helen J. Shen: I think mine's pretty far too, because I think Jin takes more risk in color and pattern than I normally would. But I really think that I need to be a bit more of a thrifty girl like Jin, so I'm trying to aspire to be as thrifty as Jin.

Simone Ashley: I went thrift shopping over the weekend. That was fun. Thrift shopping is like vintage shopping, right? Yeah, I went to a place called Procell, and I got some New York stuff. I think it's in Bowery. I don't know the exact street, but I got a Chanel skirt. You should go.

Caleb Hearon: Mine's far. I'm dressing like Kevin James in King of Queens.

Helen J. Shen: Me too, honestly!

Check out more of our The Devil Wears Prada 2 coverage here:

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is in theaters now.