OPINION: The vastly anticipated sequel to The Satan Wears Prada waited too lengthy to make a comeback.
Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway are again within the sequel to The Satan Wears Prada (Picture: twentieth Century Studios)
Like tens of millions of different individuals, I’m an enormous fan of the The Satan Wears Prada. However this is my six-word verdict: The sequel is not one we’d like. The 2006 dramedy flick set on the planet of shiny vogue journal Runway actually captured the zeitgeist and generated tens of millions of memes and GIFs, making certain it remained part of the popular culture panorama for the previous twenty years. Meryl Streep’s efficiency as pithy editor Miranda Priestly was iconic – Alex Kingston even channelled her for Strictly Come Dancing’s film week in 2025.
Provided that it made $ 326.6 million worldwide, I am certain it appeared like a no brainer to make a sequel, and lots of others, I am certain, had been extraordinarily excited for it. However having seen the movie, I now really feel some issues are higher left alone. Within the twenty years for the reason that movie was launched, the world, and the characters, have modified vastly, and the central premise – the elitism of {a magazine} like Runway – does not appear almost as related. Certainly, it is a key plot level, because the once-lauded tome, based mostly on the style Bible Vogue, is now a skinny shadow of its former self. Its key presence is now on-line, and the film’s premise rests on makes an attempt to revitalise it.
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In a world the place everyone seems to be competing for likes on their social media posts, the inside sanctum of Runway does not appear almost as elite because it as soon as was. Influencers now wield nearly as a lot energy as journal editors, and Miranda, whereas nonetheless iconic, is one thing of a dinosaur as she clings to previous glories.
Though Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs has lengthy since moved on from the title and is a critical award-winning journalist, she returns as options editor when she and her colleagues are fired from their worthy roles by textual content message. Even supposing she is achieved and assured, she seemingly can nonetheless be intimidated by a withering glare from Miranda.
That is what makes this so unhappy. The world has moved on, however the characters have not actually. They’re nonetheless caught emotionally in 2006. Whereas that makes for some very humorous interactions and moments, together with a number of throwbacks for the followers, it’s not very fulfilling. It’s well-known that the unique film was based mostly on real-life occasions, and the true individuals the leads are based mostly on have moved on considerably.
As of April this yr the inspiration for Miranda, Anna Wintour, now 76, serves because the World Chief Content material Officer and Inventive Director at Condé Nast and he has stepped again from the each day editor-in-chief duties at US Vogue, though she nonetheless oversees editorial technique for Vogue worldwide and Condé Nast manufacturers like GQ and Vainness Honest, whereas managing the Met Gala. This job is merely being dangled over Miranda’s head on this film, and she or he hasn’t progressed in any respect.
In the meantime, the true life Andy, writer Lauren Weisberger, who penned the guide on which the franchise relies, has moved on from magazines and journalism and written a number of extra novels – together with a 2013 sequel to The Satan Wears Prada entitled Revenge Wears Prada
Whereas not based mostly on reality, this could have made a significantly better sequel as Miranda’s former assistants, Andy and Emily (performed by Emily Blunt within the motion pictures), crew as much as create The Plunge, a high-end, aspirational wedding ceremony journal which Miranda needs to accumulate for her personal publishing firm, as at the least it reveals character development.
I can not fault any of the performances – all the returning forged understood the task and the newbies are nice (though Kenneth Branagh is wasted). It is usually an extremely fashionable film, as you’ll count on. However finally it appears to serve extra as a redemption arc for the character of Miranda, humanising her – and we actually did not want that.
If this had been made a number of years after the unique, it will have made extra sense. However the characters are frozen in time and nonetheless clinging to a world that now not exists. Very similar to Runway, this sequel, coming so lengthy after the unique, dangers irrelevance.
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