A proposed sequel to the 18-year-old movie The Devil Wears Prada will join baggy jeans and crop tops as a sign of Y2K’s continuing stranglehold on fashion. But that’s not all.
Here’s what we know about the planned cinematic follow-up to the movie starring Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Meryl Streep, that taught the world about cerulean blue.
Anne Hathaway (left), Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt in the 2006 box office hit The Devil Wears Prada. Credit: Alamy
Who will return for The Devil Wears Prada 2?
Reports in Variety and Puck say Disney is in talks with The Devil Wear’s Prada’s original screenwriter, Aline Brosh McKenna, to create a sequel to the hit movie, which raked in $US326 million ($483 million) worldwide.
McKenna adapted The Devil Wears Prada novel by Laura Weisberger, a former assistant to Vogue editor Anna Wintour, for big-screen success.
The rumoured plot centres on the characters played by Streep (Miranda Priestly) and Blunt (Emily Charlton). Streep picked up a Golden Globe Award and Oscar nomination for her original performance as a demanding magazine editor. Blunt also received a Golden Globe, paving the way to stardom with roles in Oppenheimer and The Fall Guy.
So far, there has been no mention of Hathaway’s character, Andy Sachs, returning. While promoting the Amazon Prime romcom The Idea of You in April, Hathaway left the door open to sliding into her character’s knee-high Chanel boots again.
“We all love each other, and if somebody could come up with a way to do it, I think we’d all be crazy not to,” Hathaway told V magazine. “But there’s a huge difference in the world now with technology, and one of the things about that particular story is it was about producing a physical object. Now, with so much being digital, it would just be very different.”
What’s it about? Will the devil wear Balenciaga?
The sequel storyline reportedly follows Miranda Priestly’s struggles in the digital landscape, where fashion magazines compete with Instagram and TikTok for relevance and advertising dollars.
Blunt’s character, Emily Charlton, is a high-powered executive for a luxury group, much like former Harper’s Bazaar editor Karin Upton Baker, who is the managing director of Hermes Australia. Charlton has the advertising dollars that Priestly’s character sorely needs. Let the glamour grovelling begin.
Hathaway as Andy in a cerulean blue jumper in The Devil Wears Prada.
The proposed plot is a diversion from Weisberger’s 2014 literary sequel Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns, in which Blunt and Hathaway’s characters jointly run the unfortunately named bridal magazine The Plunge.
Disney has made no official comment about the sequel. Perhaps the Elton John musical adaptation opening on London’s West End in October will offer some clues.
But what should happen?
Here is another possible (but highly improbable) sequel plot. Prepare for The Devil Wears Toe Nail Polish.
Andy (Anne Hathaway) has become the editorial director of wellness brand Doop after winning accolades for her book about the emotional abuse encountered in her relationship with chef Nate (Adrian Greiner).
When Runway editor-at-large Brian Zipkin ruins Doop owner Dwynwen’s (Reese Witherspoon) cerulean blue guest house sheets after an Ozempic-induced diarrhoea episode, the entrepreneur seeks revenge.
Andy is commissioned to write an exposé of Runway editor Miranda Priestly’s dated approach to fashion and token inclusivity. Priestly’s former right-hand man Nigel (Stanley Tucci) has abandoned magazines to become a Daddy influencer selling foot photographs on OnlyFans and is quoted as saying that his ex-boss is “incapable of simple human kindness”. The quote is upcycled from Andre Leon Talley’s description of his former boss and friend Anna Wintour in his memoir, The Chiffon Trenches.
Hathaway in Chanel for The Devil Wears Prada.Credit: Getty
Sensing a change in the Byredo-scented wind, Priestly lures Andy back to Runway with more Chanel boots to make the magazine inclusive and broaden the approach of fashion director Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt).
After a montage featuring Lil Nas X in a Paco Rabanne dress, Jane Fonda in a nude illusion bodysuit and a cover shoot with Naomi Campbell eating carbohydrates, Andy and Emily bond over their attempts at meaningful change.
When they overhear Miranda backstage at a Runway event in Shanghai, sponsored by Shein, saying that inclusivity is just a trend until the next skinny supermodel comes along, Andy and Emily become disheartened.
They altruistically step aside to let more racially diverse staff members work at Runway, and some actors of colour appear in the movie. Andy and Emily’s career change has nothing to do with slashed fashion shoot budgets and expense accounts being replaced by Starbucks vouchers.
The closing shot shows Miranda taking a break from shooting the next Runway magazine cover with her iPhone to wryly like the social media accounts of Andy and Emily, who have joined Nigel as foot-focused influencers.
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