The Devil Wears Prada cast has said they are open to returning for a third film, but only under specific conditions, as the sequel arrives in cinemas two decades after the original.
For star Meryl Streep, the most important consideration has to be the script. Co-star Emily Blunt agreed, telling People magazine: “A good script. It's all about the script.”
“And then, everybody has to say yes,” said Anne Hathaway, and Blunt confirmed it meant it had to be “the core four,” which included the magazine’s art director Stanley Tucci.
“They have to be alive,” quipped Streep.
The Devil Wears Prada, based on Lauren Weisberger’s 2003 novel of the same name, was released in 2006 to both commercial and critical success. Directed by David Frankel, the film followed Andrea “Andy” Sachs, played by Hathaway, as she lands a job working for Streep’s Miranda Priestly, the ice-cold editor of a major New York fashion magazine.
The character of Priestly is considered to have been at least partially inspired by Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, whom Weisberger worked for as a personal assistant.
Two decades after the original film’s release, the main cast are all reprising their roles for the sequel. The Devil Wears Prada 2 sees Miranda, along with Andy and her clash with her former assistant-turned-rival executive Emily Charlton (Blunt) over limited advertising dollars in the declining world of print journalism.
Newcomers to the franchise include Kenneth Branagh, Lucy Liu, and Bridgerton star Simone Ashley.
In a separate interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hathaway suggested that the film’s performance could determine a third film, saying: “I feel like there’s more road to explore. But, we’ll probably have a better idea of that [when the film comes out].”
Tucci joked that the cast could not handle another two-decade wait between films, saying: “I don’t think we can do it in another 20 years. We have to do it sooner than that, because I’ll be dead.”
Streep shared last week that conversations about a sequel started back in 2009, but “we all waited until we had that good idea”.
The first Devil Wears Prada film made $27.5m on its opening weekend and went on to gross over $124m domestically and over $326m worldwide.
The sequel has been well-received by critics, and has made a $233m global opening after it was released. The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey gave it four stars and wrote: “Welcome to the resistance, Miranda Priestly. Not even the die-hard loyalists of 2006’s fashion satire The Devil Wears Prada expected much from its return to the big screen: a ‘cerulean sweater’ callback, certainly, alongside some washed out lighting and plenty of egregious product placement.
“All are, unfortunately, present in The Devil Wears Prada 2 – get ready to play a hyper-capitalist Where’s Wally? with all the snuck-in Diet Coke cans. Yet the sequel has also seemingly come out of nowhere to deliver what might be the most trenchant, committed portrait made about the state of contemporary journalism.”
The Devil Wears Prada 2 is playing in theatres now.
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