The Satan Wears Prada 2 hates mass consumerism, however that’s why it exists

[ad_1] The Satan Wears Prada is among the nice millennial fairy tales.

Launched in 2006, the 12 months earlier than the financial crisis and Great Recession would come for us all, the film (primarily based on a novel impressed by author Lauren Weisberger’s expertise working for Anna Wintour at Condé Nast) posits a subversive fantasy: Our heroine Andrea “Andy” Sachs (Anne Hathaway) believes that if she will be able to work out tips on how to work for Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) for only one 12 months, she will be able to have any job within the business that she desires. Ultimately, she learns that should you work onerous and keep true to your values, you possibly can have a superb, well-paying job in New York Metropolis that doesn’t require promoting your soul or betraying your pals.

Given the way in which life has shaken out for many millennials , that story is now a bit miserable — not in contrast to the way in which most fairy tales, upon higher inspection, are. However this technology has at all times wished to imagine that one can have a satisfying job and fulfilling private relationships, with out having to endure an excessive amount of or inflict struggling on the world. And if we did promote our souls and {our relationships}, it’d really be for the chicest job on the planet, and a launchpad to one thing higher.

I'll at all times have a particular affection for The Satan Wears Prada . I noticed it a number of occasions in theaters, thought of it a deal with and watched it with commercials on TBS or TNT, and, main as much as this week’s launch, I streamed it. It’s additionally one of many few motion pictures I really personal (on my Apple TV account).

And this deep constancy exists all regardless of by no means studying Lauren Weisberger’s unique novel and having a really informal relationship with vogue.

I like that TDWP is about being a younger, hopeful journalist in 2006; I used to be additionally a younger hopeful journalist 20 years in the past (undoubtedly much less younger and maybe barely extra cynical immediately). I had been dwelling in New York for a short while, was working as a freelancer, and had a part-time retail job. I keep in mind seeing the film, strolling out of the Regal in Union Sq., and totally believing its tenets of onerous work and private accountability, and {that a} boss who known as ladies paratroopers “soiled, drained, and paunchy” was perhaps not as evil as she appears.

It modified the structure of how I considered my aspirations, the town I lived in, and my future. Clearly, a few of these concepts have since shifted, and the monetary collapse of 2007–2008 wasn’t nice for journalism, however, like Andy, I’m nonetheless right here.

Now, some 20 years later, The Satan Wears Prada has returned for a sequel. Like the unique, it runs on millennial optimism. However on this installment, its critiques — about cash, society, artwork, commerce, and sweetness — have rather less chew. By the point you get to the fairy story ending, it’s inconceivable to disregard the inventive and financial circumstances that introduced this film into existence, and the truth that on the subject of media and leisure, a billionaire is lurking in each nook.

This time, the satan wears Vuori

The pleasure of the unique is how sneakily it convinces you of Miranda Priestly’s significance and innocence. As Andy and the viewers come to be taught, Miranda isn’t a shallow, unreasonable monster; she is each the guiding drive behind each single merchandise in our closets and the product of an unforgiving system that not solely diminishes ladies but in addition undervalues artwork and sweetness, even when it’s extremely profitable. Her toughness is the explanation she’s survived this lengthy in an business that concurrently lauds her but in addition despises her for being cutthroat and harsh. Because the film posits over and over, if a person acted the way in which Miranda does (they usually do), they’d be lauded for it. (This sort of justification in the end unleashed an odd sort of over-correction in the true world that we might ultimately deem girlbossery .)

The second film has extra express targets.

In The Satan Wears Prada 2 , the media panorama resembles our actual one. Individuals now not care about studying tales, and positively nobody desires to pay for them. Accordingly, newspapers, magazines, and digital retailers have had their budgets minimize, and journalists, together with Andy, are being laid off in swaths.

A flimsy first act brings Andy to Runway as a options editor, the place she finds out that the style tome isn’t proof against the ills of the business. She instantly finds out that Jay Ravitz (BJ Novak), the nepo child in control of Runway’s mother or father firm, Elias-Clarke, desires to “optimize” Runway. (In non-corporate media jargon, he desires the journal to take advantage of sum of money whereas operating on the most cost-effective mode attainable.)

Even when the film had been on mute, the villains can be simple to identify. Novak’s Jay is draped head to toe in monochromatic polyester blends, all in varied types of fancy athleisure. He solely wears tender pants — the implication being that his life has been so frictionless that his pants should comply with swimsuit, and that, regardless of being some of the necessary individuals within the firm, he’s allowed to point out as much as work in his fitness center garments. It seems, a few of the most evil individuals on this planet put on the softest pants.

<img alt="Meryl Street and Stanley Tucci in a still from The Devil Wears Prada 2" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-03529_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-03529_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-03529_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-03529_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-03529_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-03529_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-03529_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-03529_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-03529_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-03529_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-03529_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-03529_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-03529_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-03529_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-03529_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-03529_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> The villain in The Satan Wears Prada 2 isn’t a imply boss, however the imply boss’s boss who can also be a nepo child. Macall Polay

Jay hires a squad of consultants, wearing drab grays and blues, to slash Runway’s spending. After all, these individuals don’t know magnificence. They work for McKinsey.

The opposite loathsome creature of this movie is Benji Barnes (Justin Theroux). Benji, in line with Runway gossip, is a tech founder who went soul-searching after a divorce from his lovely spouse, Sasha (Lucy Liu). After discovering Botox, hair transplants, and steroids, he discovered a brand new fiancé in Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt), Andy’s across-the-office frenemy from the primary film.

Benji has extra money than he is aware of what to do with. So he buys artwork — Klimts and Monets — and designer garments and watches, all of the stuff with the most important worth tags. It’s solely a matter of time earlier than Runway catches Benji’s eye, not as a result of he has an appreciation for vogue or magnificence, however as a result of he should ravenously, messily devour it, like a toddler razing their first ice cream cone.

Between Benji and Jay, Runway faces an existential disaster: turn out to be a soulless husk that exists to drive consumerism and shareholder worth, or promote itself to a cheesy billionaire who will, when he strikes onto the following shiny factor, promote it or, even worse, feed it into an AI engine. That’s a relatable, if bleak, actuality for a lot of media retailers proper now.

Andy, Miranda, and Nigel (Stanley Tucci) give you an answer that may solely be described as a miracle, one that might by no means work exterior of the marginally lobotomized, fairy-tale world of Runway. With out giving an excessive amount of away, I’ll say that it’s a greater finale than the unique, one which feels extra spiritually in keeping with the concept that millennials can onerous work their approach into salvation.

How vital can The Satan Wears Prada 2 actually be?

Perhaps some moviegoers will extra readily settle for the film’s fantasy for what it's. In any case, the performances are charming and the costuming sparkles. The social commentary criticizing tech billionaires and nepo children feels present. However one can be forgiven for not totally shopping for into the razzle-dazzle, given the advertising and marketing marketing campaign and circumstances surrounding the film’s existence. As a result of as a lot because the movie positions senseless consumerism and our capitalist overlords as artwork’s enemy, it very properly won't exist with out both.

The Satan Wears Prada 2 is, in spite of everything, one other sequel dropped at the floor from Disney’s bottomless and very invaluable IP mines . Due to an acquisition, these troves are full of twentieth Century Fox’s unique materials, which incorporates The Satan Wears Prada . The sequel is the precise sort of film that leisure giants and Hollywood executives have loved releasing within the final decade. These executives, just like the film’s villains, are additionally in all probability being suggested by beautyless grey ghosts and nepo infants in tender pants too, the sort that excitedly take into consideration AI and tips on how to “ streamline ” operations (i.e., slicing jobs).

<img alt="Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-12549_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-12549_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-12549_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-12549_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-12549_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-12549_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-12549_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-12549_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-12549_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-12549_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-12549_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-12549_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-12549_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-12549_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-12549_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/TDWP2-12549_R.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Do individuals actually desire a film about journalism layoffs? Macall Polay

Studios today aren’t as captivated with taking gambles on movies as they as soon as had been, particularly not mid-budget motion pictures about vogue geared toward younger ladies. They need the monetary insurance coverage of current IP — a toy perhaps . Sequels of beloved movies with ardent fanbases are seen as minimal danger. This may increasingly clarify why this film incorporates an unfathomable variety of callbacks and Easter eggs to its predecessor whereas missing any distinguishing “cerulean” second.

What's distinguishable is the advertising and marketing and model tie-ins. Food plan Coke (in fact, it’s Food plan Coke) launched specialty cans that includes the film’s signature pink heel brand, and you may apparently order Miranda Priestly’s favourite drink off the Starbucks “ secret ” menu. The movie additionally, in line with CNN, formally partnered with L’Oréal Paris, Smartwater, Samsung Galaxy, Lancôme, TRESemmé, Havaianas, Gray Goose, Google, Mercedes-Benz, Tiffany & Co., Dior, and Valentino perfume.

This enterprise is hard to look at.

There’s additionally the matter of Benji and his new fiancé bearing an uncanny resemblance to Jeff and Lauren Bezos, this 12 months’s extraordinarily controversial Met Gala “honorary chairs .” In accordance with the New York Instances, the couple had been initially simply anticipated to be the lead sponsors of each the occasion and the exhibition, however this secondary position, which “comes with a spot within the receiving line and a place on the high of the Met steps,” was later introduced. The movie doesn't legitimize them; there’s an understanding that in the event that they received their palms on Runway, it will be the tip. But, Anna Wintour, the real-life Priestly, appears to be softer than her fictional counterpart: Along with the Met Gala, Vogue covered the Bezos marriage ceremony extensively and drew backlash for glamorizing a billionaire whose firm is thought for quite a few on-site worker deaths and aggressive union-busting, amongst different issues.

It’s not as if the primary film was proof against the realities of capitalism. Miranda’s (and maybe Anna Wintour’s too) everlasting conundrum is that she believes in artwork and, on the similar time, understands the need of cash to guard it. Capital permits magnificence to exist, and its existence inside our present system is, in line with Miranda, higher than it going away solely.

However there’s one thing askew this time round. It’s harder to imagine the sequel’s “artwork will triumph ultimately” narrative while you’re consuming popcorn from a Satan Wears Prada 2 handbag popcorn bucket ($39.95) and when its mother or father firm is the apex predator of hole mass consumerism.

Maybe that’s the true, extra miserable, extra millennial ending that the primary one left unwritten: A film about vogue, the sanctity of artwork and creativity, and the significance of journalism is definitely the embodiment of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in model offers, an train in unoriginality, and was greenlit by tender pant-wearing executives, identical to those the movie warns us about. They’ve already gained. And if this charming however bleak sequel makes sufficient cash to make their funding price it, that’s their fortunately ever after.