Creators say there could be more ‘Devil Wears Prada’ sequels ahead

“It better be sooner,” director David Frankel says. “I think I speak for Meryl (Streep) when I say that also. There’s been talk. When the movie is as successful as this movie has been so far, naturally, there’s talk.”

“The Devil Wears Prada 2” made more than $690 million worldwide. Considering the first film made $326 million in its 2006 run, that’s significant — and shows there’s interest in another installment. The sequel hits streamers Disney+ and Hulu this week.

When talk surfaced about the sequel, writer Aline Brosh McKenna wasn’t sure where it could go. Time, however, had changed the publishing landscape and there was a way for the imperious editor to come in contact again with her former assistant. Anne Hathaway’s character, Andy Sachs, has been an award-winning journalist who’s now caught up in the world of cutbacks. Meryl Streep’s character, Miranda Priestly, is no longer able to ignore others' input and has to make Runway magazine more relevant to a younger audience. The two come together to address each other’s needs.

“One of the classic tenets of a buddy movie is what forces them to need each other, and the complete mouse-driven chaos of the media world would have humbled them both and caused them to need each other,” McKenna says. “It’s sort of two women have interlocking crises.”

Reality, then, gave producers a hook. Writing very quickly, McKenna had two years to get it ready.

“We actually finished the movie somewhere around mid-April, right before it came out on May 1,” Frankel says. “We had met with Meryl for the first time to even broach the idea almost to the day two years before. So that’s very fast in Hollywood terms.”

“David once called it a Polaroid,” McKenna says of the film. “It was done a second before it came out.”

Writing quickly, McKenna says she was able to see where the characters wanted to go.

“It feels a little more organic and a little less machine because of the way it was written,” she says.

Once she devised a way to get the leads back together, McKenna had to find a place for the characters played by Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt. McKenna talked with the actors to see where they thought changes had occurred.

“We had the privilege of working with four of the biggest movie stars on the planet who are not just really successful but quite brilliant,” Frankel says. “All of the elements were discussed in great detail … and that was as much fun as it was work.”

On the first film, Streep met with Hathaway at the table read and, “she said, ‘You’re a lovely actress and I’m never going to say anything nice to you again for the next 12 weeks.’ And she didn’t,” Frankel says. “It was helpful to everyone’s performance.”

Streep admits the stance created “a miserable experience,” so she insisted on a non-Method approach for the second film.

“This time, she was very friendly and very chatty and they shared a lot of time together,” Frankel says. “And their bonds grew even stronger. So it was a big difference in the way we made the movie.”

Because McKenna left threads open at the end of “Prada 2,” there’s space for the characters to come back together. A biography of Miranda Priestly particularly intrigues. And, there’s the renewed friendship between Hathaway’s and Blunt’s characters.

“I’ve always felt affection for them because it was Emily’s first American movie and Annie was so young,” McKenna says. “I do feel some slight auntie pride.”

Streep’s Miranda still brings a shudder to everyone.

“When she’s dressed as Meryl and you’re sitting around talking or at dinner, she’s great,” McKenna says. “But when she’s dressed as Miranda, my heart starts beating really fast.”

And, in case you were wondering, Miranda isn’t necessarily married to the character played by Kenneth Branagh, McKenna says.

“I don’t think they’re married," she says. "I think they’re tacitly married. But I don’t think she would do that again.”

So what would a third “Prada” consider? The idea of Miranda retiring is a possibility. But, McKenna says, she views publishing as a calling. “She’s 76 years old and she’s done only this all her life,” she says.

“It’s so compelling to her that she can’t imagine a life without it,” Frankel says. “It’s the same way Aline feels about writing or I feel about filmmaking. This is hopefully work that we’ll do until we drop. I think Andy realizes it can be important work. Finding that balance is something we all have to face, both in Hollywood and in journalism.”