Meryl Streep once swore she would never do a sequel, but The Devil Wears Prada 2 found a way to change her mind. The legendary actress and the film’s writer and director revealed the one non-negotiable condition that had to be met before Miranda Priestly could walk back into Runway magazine.
How Meryl Streep agreed to return for The Devil Wears Prada 2
Meryl Streep agreed to reprise her role as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada 2 after the creative team presented a fresh vision for the sequel. Director David Frankel and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna convinced the legendary actress that the project offered something genuinely new, according to a recent ScreenRant interview.
Frankel credited McKenna’s screenplay with getting the entire team on board. “I think Aline came in with a great vision for the second movie, and it was inspiring to me,” Frankel said. He added that Streep felt the sequel presented “an opportunity to say something completely new about these characters and about the world that they inhabit.”
McKenna acknowledged that everyone involved had publicly dismissed the idea of a follow-up. “I think we’re all on record multiple times saying we wouldn’t do a sequel,” McKenna said. “I think I said that in 2021!” The dramatic transformation of the magazine industry over two decades gave the story fresh relevance.
Streep’s history with the franchise itself involved early hesitation. The three-time Academy Award winner recently revealed on Open Book with Jenna that she initially turned down the original 2006 film. “They called me up, and they made an offer, and I said ‘No. I’m not going to do it,’” Streep recalled. She recognized the script’s potential and leveraged that confidence to negotiate higher pay. “I wanted to see if I doubled my ask, and they went right away and said, ‘Sure,’” Streep disclosed.
Streep also admitted she was contemplating retirement at the time. “I’m 56 years old, it took me this long to understand that I could do that,” she said. The original Devil Wears Prada earned more than $326 million globally. The sequel arrived in theaters on May 1, 2026, with Frankel directing and McKenna penning the script.
