Twenty years after she made cerulean blue a household anxiety trigger, Miranda Priestly is back—and she has no idea who Andy Sachs is. This isn’t a plot hole. This isn’t lazy writing. This is, according to the people who made the movie, the most brutally honest depiction of the boss-employee power dynamic ever committed to film.
At the New York premiere of The Devil Wears Prada 2, director David Frankel and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna explained the creative decision that had fans gasping when the trailer dropped: Miranda genuinely does not remember the woman who once fetched her unpublished Harry Potter manuscripts and survived the infamous “cerulean” monologue. Frankel put it in terms anyone who has ever had a first boss will understand. “It’s that thing you have when you have your first boss—they mean everything to you, you never forget them, and the boss has had a million assistants,” he said. “You came and you were there for a year, who remembers that?”
McKenna did the math and made it even more devastating. Miranda has two assistants at a time. Over twenty years, that’s approximately fifty human beings who have rotated through her office, fetched her coffee, and been reduced to tears in her vicinity. “She definitely doesn’t remember [Andy] on sight, which I think is understandable,” McKenna noted, which is a polite way of saying that to Miranda Priestly, Andy Sachs was essentially a very ambitious stapler.
But Frankel also hinted that Miranda’s amnesia might be “a little bit of a ploy on her part,” suggesting that the ice queen of Runway magazine may be playing dumb to maintain her upper hand. This is classic Miranda behavior—pretending not to remember someone as a power move, forcing them to reintroduce themselves and re-establish their inferior position in the hierarchy. It’s not forgetfulness; it’s emotional chess.
The sequel finds both women at very different professional crossroads. Andy has returned to Runway as a features editor, having spent two decades building a journalism career that mirrors the collapse of print media. Miranda is still at the top of the masthead, but the magazine industry is sinking faster than a sample size dress after Thanksgiving, and her future is no longer guaranteed. The dynamic has shifted—Andy is no longer the terrified assistant trying to survive; she’s a peer, possibly even a rival, navigating the same sinking ship.
Anne Hathaway, who reprises her role, emphasized that Andy has evolved into someone who wields power differently than her former tormentor. “I really love seeing how she treats people,” Hathaway said at the premiere. “Andy is coming into her power in her life and you’ll see in this movie, she has someone that works for her. I just love her approach. I feel like she’s gentle and kind.” It’s a deliberate contrast to Miranda’s management style, which could best be described as “gentle and kind” if those words meant their exact opposites.
Stanley Tucci also returns as Nigel, still somehow standing beside Miranda after two decades of emotional warfare, because as he put it, “there’s an emotional trajectory to it that’s logical.” Which is actor-speak for “Nigel has Stockholm syndrome and excellent health insurance.”
The premiere itself was a fashion event worthy of Runway, with Streep arriving in a flowing orange cape, Hathaway in a dramatic red gown, and Blunt in a dress that appeared to be made of sculptural white clouds. The original film’s cast and creative team reunited on a runway-inspired red carpet, proving that some franchises age like fine wine while others age like milk left in a hot car.
Anna Wintour, the real-life fashion editor who famously rejected comparisons to Miranda during the original film’s release, has apparently softened her stance. McKenna revealed that Wintour now has “a certain level of trust” with the filmmakers after seeing the first movie, which suggests that even the most intimidating figures in fashion can be won over—provided you make them feel safe first.
Frankel, who famously said no to a sequel for eighteen years, finally agreed when McKenna pitched him a concept about the collapsing media landscape. “This world is shrinking in a major way,” she told him. “What would it be like if you were on this sinking ship and Miranda’s future was not guaranteed and Andy’s future was shaky?” The answer, apparently, is a film about two women who shaped each other’s lives in profound ways, one of whom can’t be bothered to remember the other’s name.
It’s been twenty years. Miranda has had fifty assistants. Andy was one of them. The math is cold, but it’s real.
See if Miranda finally remembers—catch The Devil Wears Prada 2 in theaters May 1 and witness the reunion twenty years in the making.
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