Twenty years later, Miranda Priestly is back, and the early reactions suggest this is one sequel that did not blow it on the runway.
The embargo lifted ahead of The Devil Wears Prada 2‘s May 1 wide release, and the first reactions trickling out of preview screenings have done something rare for a legacy sequel: they have everyone genuinely excited. Word out of early audiences is that the film is sharp, surprisingly emotional, and somehow funnier than the original. After a year of underwhelming legacy sequels and IP cash grabs, that is not a low bar to clear.
What the first reactions are saying
The early read is that director David Frankel and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna avoided the most obvious pitfall of legacy sequels: trying to recreate the original beat for beat. Reactions are framing the new movie as a story that picks up where the first one left off thematically, rather than recycling the same fashion-magazine plot machinery. Critics on social are calling it “smart, mean, and weirdly tender,” and at least three early reactions used the word “necessary,” which is not language you usually see attached to a 20-year-old IP revival.
The other consistent note: Meryl Streep apparently steals the entire movie. No one is shocked by that, but the reactions suggest she is operating on a level that pushes the rest of the cast to keep up rather than relying on nostalgic returns.
Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci are all confirmed returning. The new cast additions, including a few names tied to the rise of streaming-era media empires, suggest the film is reframing the original’s print-magazine setting around the modern attention economy. That is a smart pivot. Print fashion media in 2006 felt all-powerful. In 2026, the same conversation is happening on TikTok and Substack, and the script reportedly leans into that shift hard.
If the early reactions are right, the film is not just nostalgia-baiting. It is asking what happens to a tastemaker like Miranda Priestly when the gatekeeping infrastructure she built her career on no longer exists.
Why The Devil Wears Prada 2 matters for the sequel revival economy
Hollywood has spent the last year cranking out legacy sequels with mixed results. Most of them have proven that audiences will turn up for a familiar title once, but they will not stick around if the movie does not justify itself. The Devil Wears Prada 2 arriving with strong word-of-mouth is the rare case where the marketing buzz is matching the actual quality early read.
That matters for the math behind every dormant 2000s property currently sitting in a development pile. If this opens above $50 million domestic and holds through the weekend on positive word-of-mouth, expect every studio to greenlight their own version of “the comedy hit you forgot about.” If it underperforms, the legacy sequel chase cools off fast.
Take early reactions with the standard grain of salt. Embargo-lift social posts skew positive by design, and a real critical consensus will not form until reviews drop closer to release. But the consistency of the reactions, the specific praise for the writing rather than just the nostalgia hits, and the buzz around Streep are all signals that this is more than a brand exercise.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 hits theaters Friday, May 1. If you were on the fence, the early word makes it worth the trip.
Will you be seeing The Devil Wears Prada 2 opening weekend? Drop your hot takes in the comments.
