A Devil Wears Prada sequel is in the works and we’re breaking out our cerulean sweaters

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Wenlei Ma
The Nightly
Meryl Streep from The Devil Wears Prada
Meryl Streep from The Devil Wears Prada Credit: Unknown/Supplied by Subject

It’s 2024, so the devil is more likely to be wearing Loewe, Balenciaga or Maison Margiela than Prada.

Or the devil is decked out in cashmere loungewear, playing consultant from behind a Zoom screen as the last vestiges of the magazine industry gasps shallow breaths.

A sequel to the Devil Wears Prada is in the works, according to Puck, with original screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna tapped to pen the script.

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The project is in the early development stage at Disney, which now owns the rights after it bought the film’s studio, 20th Century Fox in 2019.

Producer Wendy Finerman is also returning.

Puck reported Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt are already onboard but the rest of the Hollywood trade publications are more reticent to state that two of the three stars have signed, so it feels like less of a sure thing that the script development.

The 2006 film was based on Lauren Weisberger’s novel and was heavily influenced by the author’s time working for Vogue doyenne Anna Wintour.

The film version starred Streep as the dramatised version of Wintour, Miranda Priestly, and Hathaway as Andy, an idealistic young journalist who ends up working as her assistant.

Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada
Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt in The Devil Wears Prada. Credit: Unknown/Supplied by Subject

Fast forward almost 20 years and the mooted story for the potential sequel will apparently find Miranda near the end of her career, contending with a vastly diminished publishing industry and now having to turn to her other former assistant, Emily (Blunt), now an executive of a luxury group, for ad dollars.

If that’s the story, at least it’s a realistic portrayal of the structural challenges in the media business.

If Hathaway does end up on the call sheet, it’s unlikely Andy will still be toiling away at the city newspaper, likely inspired by the venerated The Village Voice, she joined at the end of the first film. The Village Voice stopped publishing in print in 2017 but maintains an online presence.

The 2006 film was a commercial and critical success, earning $US326 million at the global box and racking up an Oscar nomination for Streep. In the years since its release, it’s also maintained cultural relevance as an often-memed reference point for domineering bosses.

It also starred Stanley Tucci, Simon Baker, Adrian Grenier, Tracie Thoms and Gisele Bundchen.

Meryl Streep starred as Miranda Priestly opposite Anne Hathaway in the 2006 film adaption of Lauren Weisberger's bestselling debut novel "The Devil Wears Prada".
Meryl Streep was nominated for an Oscar for her performance. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

As recently as earlier this year, Hathaway said of a sequel, “I don’t think a continuation of that story is probably ever going to happen”.

There is still an appetite for it if the 2024 SAG Awards were anything to go by. Streep, Hathaway and Blunt reunited onstage to present a category and fell into the natural banter of their famous characters. It was one of the most memorable bits from the ceremony.

A stage musical version starring Vanessa Williams has just opened for previews in Plymouth in the UK before its eventual transfer to London’s West End.

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