The Devil doesn’t remember

A teaser for The Devil Wears Prada 2 dropped a few weeks ago and became the most viewed trailer of 2025 which reinforces the pop culture influence of the first movie and its lasting impact. As expected, with the arrival of the first full trailer last night, exactly three months from when the movie opens, on Grammys night no less, the sequel is once again trending everywhere and some people are confused.

It’s Meryl Streep’s Miranda, forgetting about Andy Sachs and Emily, played of course by Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt. Some people on the internet have theories about why Miranda doesn’t remember and others are countering that the angle here is that Miranda is trying to lord her superiority over those she wants to portray as inconsequential when they are out of her orbit. Do you buy that Miranda wouldn’t remember Andy, like for real not remember and not just pretending to not remember? Maybe not Emily but she’d definitely register Andy. So is this a power play? At the end of the first movie, Miranda begrudgingly accepted and might have even respected Andy’s decision but it doesn’t mean she can’t also hold a grudge against her for leaving. But also, Andy found out some sh-t about Miranda, saw her in a vulnerable moment, and that could be another reason Miranda wants to purge their entire history from her memory. Or…you know… does she actually not remember because she’s experiencing what many of us of a certain age are observing in our parents?

Curious to see if this memory thing is explained in the movie or whether or not it’s just a comedic device because, um, I’m not sure Miranda in decline (in that specific way) is the movie we’ve been waiting for. The Devil Wears Prada 2 comes out in the spring, the season of rebirth and optimism (which we are increasingly short on). No one was going into this film expecting the sads – at least not that kind of sads. What most people are expecting is c-nty fluffy fun with a dash of career insight and personal growth.

Speaking of spring though, there is a spring Easter egg that I do really enjoy. The scene right off the top of the trailer is what is supposed to be the Met Gala, and you will note that the banners hanging from the museum read “SPRING FLORALS”, a direct callback to the first movie, when Miranda’s in an editorial meeting hearing pitches and delivers one of her classic lines: “Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking.”

This is excellent… but I’m not really feeling the rest of it. And that’s not a bad thing. I’m actually kind of excited that I’m not that excited about this trailer because keeping expectations medium isn’t a bad strategy and not giving everything away in the trailer is also not a bad strategy. Give us the bare minimum basics (Andy is features editor at Runway now) and make the rest as generic as possible, at least for now. That’s enough to generate momentum and there’s more than enough to build on it through Benito Bowl weekend and the award shows etc etc.