How to Build a Sequel ft. The Devil Wears Prada
We look at some Oscar changes, the best sequels of the decade, and why The Devil Wears Prada 2 was so successful.
Oscar Shake-ups
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, more commonly known as the Oscars, made some splashes this past week with some newly updated criteria, which will be enforced for next year’s 99th annual awards. Here is a breakdown of the three most telling changes:
AI (artificial intelligence) can play no role in any screenwriting or acting performances to be eligible for nomination. They use the phrasing, “demonstrably performed by humans,” which seems like an absolute no-brainer. No offense to our tech overlords, but keep that shit off my screen as much as “humanly” possible.
Actors can be nominated in the SAME category multiple times if they earn the allotted votes to qualify in the top five. Scarlett Johansson was the last actor to come closest to this feat, being nominated for Best Actress (Marriage Story) and Best Supporting Actress (Jojo Rabbit) in 2020. I am curious to see who will be able to break this threshold, as I assume it would happen in the supporting categories over Best Actor/Actress. Oscar-winning actress Anne Hathaway is in an incredible five starring roles this year, so this could be the year of the “Hathanassaince.”
Finally, a subject I have railed on about enough to get its own article this year (please read for context) has made a change. International Features will now be credited toward the director and NOT the country, allowing for more than one film to gain entry. This has been a boondoggle for France, in particular, the past decade, whose cup overflows with quality entries each year. Once again, read the link above for my breakdown and why this change is such an amazing step forward for the Academy.
How to Build a Sequel
To be clear, I’m just an avid film watcher and would not consider myself to be a critic. However, in 2025, over half of the major Hollywood studio releases were from previous IP. In fact, looking at the top twenty domestic box office hits of last year, only two, Sinners and Weapons, were original stories. These sequels, reboots, and spin-offs aren’t going anywhere, so we may as well focus on who seems to be getting it right.
With any sequel, you’re usually looking at bigger, not necessarily better. There is a larger budget, higher expectations at the box office, and an expanded cast to bring in new elements to an already established story. This could mean a new antagonist to join the fray or new supporting characters who have worked their way into the lives of our favorite leads. Some hit and enhance the story, while many start feeling like over-bloated fan service.
The script is always the main culprit in determining if the film will have anything left to tell or if we are in a simple money grab by the studios. Some have canon stories they can pull from, like various Marvel/DC superhero franchises. Others have book adaptations that can range from extremely loose (Wuthering Heights) to pretty impossible standards (Odyssey & Dune: Part Three).
Threading the needle of a sequel is an almost impossible task nowadays, where we see a natural progression with characters combined with excellent filmmaking. Being too nostalgic and afraid to take a story to an uncomfortable level has proven to be the difference between a good and bad sequel. Let’s take a look at five years of three films that did it right.
Sequels Who Got It Right
Example #1: Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Original: The 1986 classic hit was a breakout for Tom Cruise and led by legendary action director Tony Scott. While some may say it’s the most homoerotic military film ever produced, you can’t help but hold onto your seats as the Kenny Loggins-led soundtrack blasts alongside some of the most iconic scenes of the ’80s.
Sequel: We fast-forward thirty-five years, and Joseph Kosinski’s direction takes the film’s visual and audio sensory levels to the max. Cruise is back as Captain Pete Mitchell in a more senior role, training elite pilots for a new mission. The training montages are epic, the late co-pilot Goose’s son is in the mix, and we see a lifelong friendship come to its conclusion. The long stretch of time was a good thing to not only bring fans back into the fold but build upon simple action lore that allows Cruise to carry the sometimes hammy story to a logical conclusion.
Example #2: Dune: Part Two (2024)
Original: Director Denis Villeneuve is a sci-fi master and, in 2021, was given his largest budget yet to adapt the seemingly unadaptable Frank Herbert novel. Where David Lynch tried and failed in 1984 (though still a cult classic), Villeneuve soared. Released day-and-date in theaters alongside HBO due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the universe created was expansive and chock-full of excellent performances. Keeping all the lore of this massive space opera was impossible for a single film, but we are given the backdrop of the rise of Paul Atreides in the barren desert landscape of Arrakis.
Sequel: Three years later, Villeneuve and his entire cast were back to continue the story of Paul Atreides as he builds his native Arrakis Fremen army to take revenge on those who tried to bring down his family. The story brings in iconography, religious fanaticism, and prophecy as we see Paul (Muad’Dib) begin his jihad against the Imperium across the known universe. Bringing in new vile characters from House Harkonnen and incredibly impressive CGI set pieces, you can feel the weight of the story over its two-hour and forty-six-minute runtime. The film also allows Timothée Chalamet to showcase his talent, becoming more resolute and tenacious compared to the first film. We’ll see if the third entry can live up to its predecessors.
The Devil Wears Prada 2
This brings us to our third and final heralded sequel of the past five years. The original, released in 2006, was an ultimate rewatchable hit. Meryl Streep, as a knock-off Anna Wintour fashion mogul (Miranda Priestly), delivers one of the most iconic performances of this quarter century, earning her an Oscar nomination. Anne Hathaway, portraying recent journalism graduate Andrea Sachs, is thrust into an unknown, high-intensity world where nothing besides perfection is tolerated.
We also get two astounding supporting performances by Emily Blunt as her senior office heel and Stanley Tucci, who plays a harsh but lovingly sage mentor to Andy. It’s your classic “fish out of water” story but holds sincerity and laughs, showing that you can reach your potential with enough hard work (plus beratement). Plus the fashion, music, and killer montages—what a feature! Let’s dive into this week’s sequel hit film, The Devil Wears Prada 2.
In a nutshell: Twenty years after the original story, award-winning journalist Andrea Sachs (Anne Hathaway) is reunited with her former employer Miranda Priestly and Runway magazine to become their feature editor. With the hopes of saving the magazine from a string of bad press, Andrea must fight against the norms of the fashion world as well as the ever-changing online publication landscape to keep both her boss and parent company happy. Good luck!
Spill the tea: Original director Dave Frankel and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna are back and were able to wrangle all four original cast members (Hathaway, Streep, Blunt, Tucci) as well. The original budget was around $40 million and pulled in over $325 million at the box office, plus untold amounts of DVD sales. This was greenlit for $100 million, and the big “if” was whether anyone still cared about this story.
Opening weekend in the U.S. was $77 million and $156.6 million internationally, putting them at a robust $233.6 million global total. Great word of mouth and scores should see them eclipse their original total in two to three weeks. Seventy percent of the audience so far has been female, but there are sure to be many fans who will be repeat viewers. This will be a bona fide hit of 2026.
Edit: Week two numbers are in and the film is sitting at $144.8 million domestically and $288.4 million overseas. It has already overtook the original of $326.5 million and should surpass the total box office plus inflation in the next two weeks!
Time is money, why should I go?: Did you enjoy the first film? Did it make you laugh or cry? Did you see Miranda Priestly as actually a good but harsh boss who expected everyone to be on her wavelength? Did Nigel showing Andrea the Runway collection, followed by her new-look montage over Madonna’s “Vogue,” just put you in the best of moods? Yeah, me too—go to the theater; it’s a blast.
In all seriousness, this sequel did not fall into the trap of being too over the top with hits of nostalgia. There were several callbacks to the first film, but it was adapted to a 2026 realism without hitting you over the head with it. It’s really not a fashion movie at all, but more a dissection of modern work dynamics. Each character is dealing with a new reality of publishing in the age of TikTok: limited budgets, cutting overhead, and trying to maintain integrity while running a magazine seemingly heading the way of dinosaurs, while luxury fashion sales continue to hit new record highs.
This was a middle-age existential problem wrapped in the non-warming embrace of haute couture artisanal craftsmanship. While this all seems like a bummer of a script, the real heart of the film was the friendships that were put on pause for twenty years, which go much deeper than in the original film. We see Andrea resolve the baggage she carried for decades with Miranda (Meryl Streep) and Emily (Emily Blunt), while finding ways to give back to her former mentor Nigel (Tucci). To be honest, it will never live up to the original, but in many ways, it’s a better film.
Star of the show: Anne Hathaway was our vehicle into the fashion world in the original film. We experienced the hectic and precise nature of the business through her eyes, but just like her character, we were transfixed on Miranda Priestly the entire time. For this film, she is the real driver of the plot after a healthy “glow-up.” Her work with the magazine and what she is able to change will either seal the fate of Runway to be sold off or keep the long-established pillar of fashion in business for the foreseeable future.
She exudes confidence and the experience to handle all the massive egos in her small world, while still finding some time to start a relationship on the side. Her new self, after twenty years of journalism around the country, gives her a gravitas to build bridges with Miranda, Emily, and Nigel instead of just worrying about what she could do wrong to make them collapse. Yes, she’s still a little neurotic and needs reassurance, like everyone can from time to time, but it’s a nice change of pace from the original that she couldn’t have pulled off in 2006.
30-second timeout: Justin Theroux plays Emily’s new billionaire tech boyfriend, Benji Barnes. He seems like an amalgamation of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, mixed with the biggest ham sandwich you can whip up in your kitchen. As one of the potential buyers of Runway, his schtick of optimization, AI usage, and transforming the once-beloved magazine into a shell of its former self seemed both accurate yet annoying. Plot-wise, he was necessary to bring Emily more into the fold, but hearing him talk for more than thirty seconds got a little too deus ex machina for me.
Don’t Sleep On: The guest cameos from the fashion world blow anything out of the water from the first film. I’m not spoiling anything by saying we get looks at Donatella Versace, Marc Jacobs, Heidi Klum, Winnie Harlow, stylist Law Roach, and a major fashion icon pop singer.
Also, I think this is a great time to add: don’t sleep on those showing up to watch the film. A group of ten—mostly women, but also a couple of sharply dressed men—showed up to my screening head to toe in designer wear. They knew the assignment and completed it with full panache and enthusiasm. At one point, a very striking woman in designer pants and literally just a couture bra walked past me to get some butter on her popcorn, and I knew I was in the correct theater.
MatM Score: Recommend – 8.5 (Not as iconic, but possibly a better film than the original)
Some interesting films are coming out in the next few weeks. Arcade game adaptations like Mortal Kombat II (May 8), the cheeky mystery comedy The Sheep Detectives (May 8), action-adventure In the Grey (May 15), and the trippy horror The Backrooms (May 29) all offer something a little different. We’ll be back next month to discuss them and more here at Matt at the Movies. Thanks for reading over at Y’all Weekly, and in the words of Miranda Priestly, “That’s all…”
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