The Devil Wears Prada 2 almost did not happen without Meryl Streep returning as Miranda Priestly. Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci have now confirmed that her comeback was the one non-negotiable condition before anyone else signed on. The sequel lived and died by one single name.

The entire cast had an unspoken agreement: no Meryl Streep, no The Devil Wears Prada 2. Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci, who are brother and sister-in-law in real life, were already in informal talks with Anne Hathaway. But Streep remained the one piece nobody could replace.

"I think we were waiting to hear is Meryl back? Like she was the one that was sort of like, I kind of knew we could corral like me and you and Annie," Emily Blunt shared during a Rotten Tomatoes interview.

Stanley Tucci then added, "If she didn't do it, there wasn't going to be a movie," making it clear that the decision was never really about the script or the timing.

What is remarkable is that Streep nearly turned down the original 2006 film too, meaning the franchise as we know it almost looked very different. She initially declined before the makers agreed to meet her asking price. No Meryl Streep in 2006 would have meant no iconic Miranda Priestly the world knows today, no legacy to revisit, and no sequel to greenlight two decades later.

As Meryl Streep's return sealed the deal, the sequel also welcomed a fresh wave of talent into the high fashion world of Runway.

New faces who joined The Devil Wears Prada 2 ensemble

Simone Ashley plays Miranda Priestly's current first assistant, Amari Mari, while Caleb Hearon steps in as second assistant Charlie. Pauline Chalamet appears as Runway editor Ilana Poole, and Helen J. Shen plays Jin Chao, assistant to Anne Hathaway's Andy Sachs. Kendall Jenner, while not part of the main cast, became the face of the global marketing campaign, starring in a viral promotional ad created by Ryan Reynolds' agency, Maximum Effort, where she was humorously mistaken for a Runway job applicant.

Released on May 1, 2026, the film has already crossed 234 million dollars globally, with a domestic opening of 77 million dollars, the highest ever for a Meryl Streep film. It sits comfortably at number one at the box office, ahead of the Michael Jackson biopic. Twenty years on, Miranda Priestly still runs the show.

What are your thoughts on Meryl Streep being the deciding factor behind The Devil Wears Prada 2? Let us know in the comments.

Written by

Shraddha Priyadarshi

Edited by

Aliza Siddiqui