I felt nostalgic, curious, and of a bit of “what are they doing with this sequel?” energy.

By Katie Rea — spiritual director, writer, and companion for those listening deeply to life as it is.

Mixed Emotions About the Sequel

I caught a short preview of The Devil Wears Prada 2 yesterday, and I felt a spark of excitement. I was swept up in a wave of nostalgia for the original film, remembering the energy and impact it had when I first saw it.

I was also curious about how the story would unfold next and which direction the sequel might go.  After some digging, it looks like one woman would be pitted against the other. It looks like it’s Anne Hathaway’s character against Emily Blunt’s. I wanted to roll my eyes as this encouraged the stereotype of how women have to be enemies in the business world. Yet, I can’t deny former co-workers can become rivals.

As such, there was also a touch of skepticism. Questions arose about the choices being made for this new chapter. All these emotions blended together, leaving me both excited and cautious as I anticipate what’s to come.

It’s especially interesting, since Meryl Streep rarely returns to play the same character in films. She made a cameo appearance in Mama Mia 2, but normally, she loves moving to the next fresh project. But her character Miranda Priestly is back! Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt, and a cast of new characters are ready to shine.

But amidst this excitement, I thought about the original film. It was fun and fabulous, but it also gave me a sense of unease.

The first Devil Wears Prada hit me in a very particular place when I first watched it. Andy’s frantic mornings, her exhaustion, her longing to prove herself, the sense that she should somehow be “further along,” all felt painfully familiar. It still does. That opening sequence has this way of whispering, Is your life really so wrong? Should you have become someone else by now?  More successful? More driven?

And then there’s the body image part, the part we all absorbed without question in 2006. A size 8 was treated as “huge” in the fashion world. A joke. A problem to be fixed. Watching the new preview stirred that old tension again. If an 8 was big, where does that leave the rest of us? Where does that leave a size 16 woman, especially considering that size 16-18 is actually the average for women in America today? Where does it leave me?

It makes me wonder how many of us grew up measuring ourselves against an industry that never reflected us in the first place. How many of us internalized a standard that wasn’t even meant to include us?

Maybe that’s why the trailer left me with mixed feelings. I’m excited to revisit the story, and will definitely watch the upcoming movie, but I’m also older now and more aware, more embodied, more curious about the stories we tell about women’s worth, women’s bodies, and women’s lives.

Maybe the better question isn’t “Is my life really so wrong?”
Maybe it’s, “Who told me it was supposed to look different, and why did I believe them?”

Click here to see THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 Official Teaser Trailer (2026) Anne Hathaway

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