After twenty years of the 2006 classic “The Devil Wears Prada,” my expectations were high for the second version, consisting of the same iconic cast of Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci. The reboot was released to the public on May first of 2026, and has a run time of 1 hour and 59 minutes, 10 minutes longer than the original.
Considering the similarities in casting and the return of director David Frankel, I was anticipating the reboot to stick to the timelessness of the original, but I found it to include a lot more “Trendy” songs, outfits, and language. Although there is nothing wrong with this more “trendy” theme,
It didn’t feel as classic as “The Devil Wears Prada.” In my opinion, the original was not chasing trends and short-term success like the sequel. Many popular songs trending on TikTok graced the film.
I found it very counterintuitive that the directors focused on trends in writing and visuals, considering the main characters focused on “beating” the short-term style success with their journalism, fashion, and overall goals of becoming successful in the field.
The movie features a similar lineup to the original, with Anne Hathaway playing the nervous, new employee named Andrea and Meryl Streep as the mean, overbearing boss named Miranda. Andrea’s return to New York, while previously on a venture to further her journalism career, results in job loss and then job gain at the same company she had worked at 20 years prior. As they begin to re-bond with each other and their other co-worker, Emily, played by Emily Blunt, conversations about the death of attention spans and journalism come up.
The inclusion of political and cultural references through people stood out to me as a very “in the moment” type of movie. The trendy phrases and characters showed strong comparisons to current events, which is not something I had observed in the original. Due to this theme of “now” throughout the whole thing, I fear it will not live up to the legacy of the first.
That being said, I still found the movie enjoyable. The throwbacks to the first “The Devil Wears Prada”, such as Miranda’s “That’s all” catch phrase and Emily’s comments on Andrea’s clothes, are very reminiscent of the original. The characters still had their sharp wittiness and personalities, just 20 years later.
Overall, I thought the movie was quite good, especially if you are a fan of the original. While I don’t believe it will age quite as nicely as the first, I found it to be a great attempt and worth watching.
