Streep and Hathaway on why 'Devil Wears Prada 2' was worth the wait

Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway walked the red carpet at a Shanghai preview of "The Devil Wears Prada 2" last month, dazzling fans and bystanders before dancing to Madonna's "Vogue."

A still from "The Devil Wears Prada 2." [Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios]

It has been 20 years since David Frankel's "The Devil Wears Prada" became a worldwide phenomenon. So why did they choose to return for the long-awaited sequel?

"I didn't know that it was going to be possible because I thought it's such a dicey prospect to revisit something that's so beloved," Hathaway told China.org.cn. "And I thought, do we even want to attempt it? We would have to have one of the best scripts that I've ever read, one that just knows how to balance nostalgia with an understanding of the world as it is now, and all these characters would have to have evolved. It was just such an unusual target to hit."

The answer came from screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, who delivered a script strong enough to change their minds.

"She did it. And all of a sudden, the 20 years that we've had to wait become such an important foundation of understanding for the movie because we've all lived through the last 20 years," Hathaway noted. "We've lived through this chaos and this confusion and the rapidly changing landscape of everything. We're all doing our best, just like these characters. So I think that there's already this built-in familiarity with the characters that the last 20 years will have only deepened here."

Frankel returned to helm the sequel, which reunites Streep, Hathaway, Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt two decades later as the fashion world grapples with the digital age. Miranda Priestly (Streep) and Andy Sachs (Hathaway) both face career crises as traditional media declines. Andy, a recently laid-off journalist, returns to Runway and teams up with Miranda against Emily (Blunt), her former assistant turned luxury executive who controls funding that could ensure the magazine's survival.

After the original became a sensation, Frankel knew a sequel could have been made at any time. But he and the creative team felt the story had reached a natural conclusion, and forcing the characters back together purely for a sequel felt too contrived.

The passage of time ultimately made the reunion feel necessary. The print industry has transformed beyond recognition in the years since the original, a shift underscored by the arrival of the iPhone just a year after the film's release. With Streep's agreement to return contingent on the script meeting her standards, the team decided to take the leap.

Streep said she welcomed seeing a woman her age at the center of a major film. "I like that very much because I am 76 and I like to see that woman on the screen," she said. "I never in my wildest dreams imagined we would do a sequel 20 years later at this age."

The veteran actor noted the first one was loosely based on Lauren Weisberger's novel about Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who is also 76. She revealed that over the years since they made the first film, she and Wintour became friends and even shot a Vogue cover together.

Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway pose with audience members at a gala preview screening in Shanghai to promote "The Devil Wears Prada 2," April 10, 2026. [Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios]

Hathaway said the films opened her eyes to the fashion world, just as they did for global audiences.

Streep agreed, recalling her own first encounter with that world. "I had never been to a fashion show until we went to Milan. That was my first time," she said. "I was so surprised by that. It's a theatrical event. It's very heightened, and the music is very loud, and the models are very thin and very young. I just sat there wanting to feed them."

"I think the thing that I understand better about fashion is because I think that the first film did a really good job of showing — actually surprising the world — by how much we actually really all love fashion and that it's not just this insular world," Hathaway said.

Streep weighed in: "I just think we always knew how much people love fashion. But what our business didn't understand is what women want. They asked what Freud said — what do women want? This is what they want: young people who are struggling through life but who wear beautiful clothes and walk through this enchanting landscape."

Hathaway said she once thought that an interest in fashion meant sacrificing something serious about herself. "I didn't understand that they could go hand in hand, and I think the film actually showed us that fashion is a serious business and it's frivolous at the same time. And you can enjoy it and still be a serious person," she said.

"The Devil Wears Prada 2" opened in Chinese theaters on April 30.