The Devil Wears Prada 2

Development

In 2013, Lauren Weisberger wrote and published Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns, a sequel to her 2003 novel The Devil Wears Prada which had been adapted into the 2006 film. However, it did not seemed likely an adaptation of that novel, or any sequel, would be made, as starring cast members Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway were not eager to do such a film. Streep reportedly said she was not interested, while Hathaway stated she would like to work with the same people on "something totally different".^[29]

In July 2024, it was reported that Walt Disney Studios, the parent division of 20th Century Studios, was interested in developing a sequel.^[30] Negotiations began that month with Aline Brosh McKenna returning to write the screenplay, and Streep, Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci reprising their roles from the first film.^[31][5] A $100 million budget was allotted for production, almost triple what the original film cost to make, unadjusted for inflation. David Frankel, who returned as director, said that most of the difference was accounted for by actors' salaries and "[we had] basically the same budget for making the movie as we did the first one."^[32] It was later revealed that Streep, Hathaway, and Blunt had pay parity on the sequel, each receiving $12.5 million upfront plus backends dependent on the film's performance with potential to ultimately earn over $20 million each.^[33]

Casting and filming

Principal photography began on June 30, 2025, with Frankel again directing, and Kenneth Branagh joining the cast.^[9] In July, it was announced that Tracie Thoms and Tibor Feldman would also reprise their roles, with Simone Ashley, Lucy Liu, Justin Theroux, B. J. Novak, Pauline Chalamet, Rachel Bloom and Patrick Brammall as new additions to the cast.^[34][6][14]

Streep, Hathaway, and Tucci were spotted filming in Manhattan during the week of July 21, 2025.^[35] Blunt was spotted for the first time a week later.^[36] Brammel and Hathaway were spotted filming a scene together on August 5.^[37] Sydney Sweeney was spotted on set with Blunt on August 7.^[38] An important airport scene was shot at Newark on September 10.^[39][40] Tucci and Streep filmed at Dolce & Gabbana's Milan Fashion Week show on September 27.^[41] Filming took place in Milan, Italy, from October 6 to 18.^[42] In October, Donatella Versace was seen on set filming a cameo appearance,^[21] while Lady Gaga was announced to be having a role.^[43] Ashley finished filming her scenes on October 17.^[44] Filming officially wrapped on October 20.^[45] By November, Caleb Hearon, Helen J. Shen, Conrad Ricamora and Calum Harper were also announced to have been cast.^[16][24] In April 2026, it was revealed that Sweeney, who was meant to cameo as herself, was cut from the finished film.^[46]

Some of the filming locations attracted crowds of onlookers when social media reported that scenes were being filmed there, which had not happened with the first film. According to production designer Jess Gonchor, who also returned from the original, it was "a mob scene" at the American Museum of Natural History, again standing in for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Fortunately, he says, the production needed a crowd for the scene anyway, so it helped. A large crowd in the Meatpacking District also watched the filming of the scene where Andy boards the Hampton Jitney. "The shoot was the middle of summer and it was pretty special to see people embracing the movie like that. It never disrupted the filming but it did make everyone feel like the Beatles."^[47]

Sets and locations

Gonchor, the production designer for the first film, returned for the sequel. The Runway offices were again sets built at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, but this time, he told Architectural Digest, they were eight times larger, showing the space the original was meant only to suggest. "With the new offices, we're creating more of a visual story. We opened the whole thing up so it wasn't just about Miranda and the assistants." The former McGraw-Hill building at 1221 Avenue of the Americas again served as the exterior and lobby of the Elias-Clark building. A large room was dressed as the cafeteria.^[48]

"Saying the words 'The Devil Wears Prada' opened a lot of doors for us this time around and got us access into places we hadn't been able to before", Gonchor said. In New York, that meant the production was allowed to film at the Dior boutique at 57th Street and Madison Avenue before it was opened, as well as the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria hotel, which had been closed for six years of renovations. For Emily's office, newly-opened space in the Hudson Yards development was used. Marc Jacobs allowed the production into his fitting rooms.^[47] The crew got permission to use the same townhouse that had been Miranda's in the first film.^[48]

The refectory at Santa Maria delle Grazie, with The Last Supper

Villa Balbiano

While Manhattan's Woolworth Mansion stood in for the interiors of the hotel rooms in Milan, many other scenes set in Milan were filmed on location and in other places in Italy. The Palazzo Parigi & Grand Spa Milano, where the cast stayed while shooting, lent its exterior and lobby to be used for filming, leading Tucci and Theroux to have martinis there between scenes. Lady Gaga's appearance was originally planned for the Piazza del Duomo, but was moved to the Accademia di Brera to prevent word of her appearance from spreading. The dinner scene in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie was filmed on a set built to three-quarters scale, including a hand-painted replication of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, by a team of craftsmen led by a woman who manages set design for a Roman opera house.^[48] Since they were not allowed to use the actual painting, "we had to really study that thing", Gonchor says. On several private tours, "we were allowed to take our time and figure out how we wanted to replicate it—just myself and a couple other people, no crowds. It was a really special thing to get to do."^[47] After a lengthy boat tour of Lake Como, Gonchor chose Villa del Balbiano as Benji's villa. "[W]e knew that Emily and Benji would arrive by boat, and we also wanted viewers to see the house from the lake, too, so that they were really brought into this lavish environment.^[48][47]

Marketing

The first teaser trailer was released on November 12, 2025. It was reportedly the most-viewed comedy trailer in 15 years, with 181.5 million views in its first 24 hours alone.^[56] The film's color grading and lighting—as presented in the trailer—sparked numerous comments on social media and in the press, lamenting the widespread adoption of the "Netflix look" across the film industry (standardized colors, loss of contrast, resulting in a smooth and flat visual rendering).^[57] The film's first full trailer, released on February 1, 2026, recorded 222 million views within its first 24 hours, which 20th described as the most-viewed trailer in the studio's history.^[58] In April 2026, Anna Wintour, the former editor-in-chief of Vogue and whom Streep's character Miranda Priestly is purportedly based on, appeared on the cover of the magazine alongside the actress.^[59][60] Later that month, Streep and Hathaway traveled to South Korea to promote the film, and participated in an interview with singer Jang Won-young.^[61]

The marketing campaign for The Devil Wears Prada 2 was reportedly one of the largest film promotional efforts ever undertaken by Disney. The Hollywood Reporter estimated the campaign’s promotional value at $250 million, supported by brand partnerships with Dior, Google, The Coca-Cola Company, Grey Goose, Mercedes-Benz, L'Oréal, Zillow, TRESemmé, and United Airlines.^[62]

Theatrical release

The Devil Wears Prada 2 premiered at the Lincoln Center in New York City on April 20, 2026, with the event being live-streamed on Disney+ and Hulu.^[63][64] Another premiere was held two days later in London.^[65] It premiered in Tokyo at Roppongi Hills on April 24.^[66]

The film was released in theaters in the United States on May 1, 2026.^[67] Disney had originally scheduled Avengers: Doomsday for that date, but removed it with Prada after the film was fast-tracked during production.^[62]

Box office

As of May 11, 2026^[update], The Devil Wears Prada 2 has grossed $147 million in the United States and Canada, and $290 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $437 million.^[3][4]

In the United States and Canada, it was projected to gross $75–80 million from 4,150 theaters during the opening weekend, with some estimates going as high as $100 million.^[2] The film made $32.5 million during its opening day, including $10 million in Thursday previews. It ended up debuting to $76.7 million during its opening weekend, topping the box office and outgrossing the original film's opening of $27.5 million in 2006, almost tripling its earning or doubling it when adjusted for inflation,^[68] and becoming the fourth-biggest debut for a 2026 film. It was also the highest domestic opening weekend for Streep, beating the $90 million start of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018).^[69][70][71]

Internationally, the film was projected to debut to around $100 million from 35 countries.^[2] It made $27.5 million internationally during its opening day, which added up to $114.6 million globally, marking the best opening day of 2026 in 16 countries.^[72] It ended up debuting to $156.6 million internationally during its opening weekend for a total of $233.6 million. It marked the second best worldwide opening for a 2026 Motion Picture Association film, behind The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ($372.5 million). It was also the highest opening weekend for Streep and Blunt, both globally and internationally, beating Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and Oppenheimer (2023), respectively.^[69] It opened at number one in almost all major markets and marked the highest-grossing weekends of 2026 in multiple countries.^[72]

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 78% of 301 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Meryl Streep still wears Miranda Priestly like a finely-tailored suit in this sinfully enjoyable sequel, which is dressed to the nines in off-the-rack wish fulfillment and some trenchant observations about the state of modern media."^[73] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 62 out of 100, based on 56 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[74] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, up from the first film’s "B".^[75]

Justin Chang of The New Yorker wrote that the film is "...selling a truckload of preposterous goods, but it sells them awfully well, with unfeigned assurance, conviction, and the appropriate ratio of cynicism to hope."^[76] David Sims of The Atlantic wrote, "It has plenty of breezy fun probing the dilemmas of modern media, without abandoning the glitz that made the original so enduring."^[77] Odie Henderson of The Boston Globe wrote, "Miranda is given more depth this time, which softens her just a tad, but it forces the viewer to root for her success. That would bug me, but The Devil Wears Prada 2 successfully gives journalists a bigger villain to hiss at and resent."^[78] Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent wrote that the film "...hits painfully home, and perpetual job insecurity is hardly exclusive to the media world. Yet even for those who can’t relate, there’s still plenty of the indulgent, fondant pleasures to take part in."^[79]

In a negative review, Moira MacDonald of The Seattle Times wrote that the film "...gives us a lot to look at, and Hathaway and Blunt in particular are a pleasure, but it’s flat Champagne: maybe worth drinking in a pinch, but unsatisfying."^[80] Randy Myers of The Mercury News wrote, "Yes, it is indeed a pleasure to hang out with these characters again, and there are a few good laughs here and there. But The Devil Wears Prada 2 feels like it came off the rack before it was ready. It feels about as groundbreaking as florals in spring."^[81] The Globe & Mail's Jehanna Schneller opined that unlike the original film, The Devil Wears Prada 2 "has zero idea what it's about", in particular seeing its social commentary as soft and inconsistent.^[82]

Allegations of anti-Asian racism

On April 16, 2026, 20th Century Studios released a promotional clip for the film on its official YouTube channel, featuring Hathaway's character Andy alongside her East Asian assistant, Jin Chao,^[b] portrayed by Chinese-American actress Helen J. Shen.^[18][19] Shen's character drew criticism for its alleged use of racist tropes, as online observers noted that the character’s name bore phonetic resemblance to "ching chong", a racial slur historically used to mock the Chinese language and people.^[85][86] Critics further observed that the character was portrayed wearing comparatively dowdy clothing and glasses, in contrast to other characters, and was shown reciting her academic achievements, which they interpreted as reinforcing the "nerdy bookworm" stereotype often associated with Asian individuals.^[18]

The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) stated "[it's] unfortunate that offensive stereotypes continue to color how Asian American communities are perceived today, whether spread intentionally or not".^[87]

According to the South China Morning Post, the character's name was initially mistakenly reported as "Chin Chou", which further resembled the pronunciation of the racial slur and contributed to its widespread circulation on social media.^[86] The controversy sparked online backlash and debate across mainland China, Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong,^[19][85][87] with calls to boycott the film spreading on the Chinese internet.^[88][89] It has also been widely reported by Asian media, including Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, Japan's Sankei Shinbun, and South Korea's The Chosun Daily and The Korea Times.^[90]

In response to the controversy, the writer McKenna stated that the character Jin Chao was named after a childhood friend and is a "very dimensional character", adding that she is her "love letter to all the wonderful Gen Z assistants [she's] had who are so enterprising and intelligent".^[91] Korean-American filmmaker Joseph Kahn also commented on the controversy but pushed back on many of the criticisms stating "[Jin's] outfit is actually very couture in a film about fashion. Her glasses and hair clips are of the moment. The body shape disparity comes from Anne Hathaway who mandated there would be "diversity of sizes" which could either be taken as genuine virtue signaling or an actress wanting to be the skinniest and tallest onscreen. Nevertheless, the Asian character is being depicted as a fashionable, striver in the fashion world with typical Gen Z neurodivergency".^[92]

Italian dubbing

Although all the Italian actors who had done the voices for the original film when it was dubbed reprised their roles for the sequel, some viewers in Italy were unsatisfied with the Italian dub. Maria Pia Di Meo, the voice of characters played by Streep in every Italian-dubbed film of hers for many years, is 86, 10 years older than Streep, and some viewers said she sounded distinctly older than Miranda looked. More generally, some lines took longer to say in Italian than in English, resulting in a notable lack of synchronization with the characters' mouths.^[93]