In 2006’s The Devil Wears Prada, the relationship between Emily and Andy was simple. After starving, struggling, and fighting too hard for too long on the rungs of the Runway ladder, Emily Charlton, played by Emily Blunt, wasn’t about to stand aside and watch some clueless grad student with a journalism degree muscle in on her turf. Meanwhile, Andy, played by Anne Hathaway, was merely trying to survive.
As silly and petty as the relationship was back then, it made sense in context.
The Devil Wears Prada 2, however, brings the relationship back and makes it infinitely more complex and infinitely more interesting as a result.
Frenemies Upgraded to True Rivalry
For starters, the relationship between the women has evolved from two underlings competing for scraps at an impossible table into a full-blown, high-stakes battle royale between power players. Now, Andy is an award-winning investigative journalist who loses her job via text message during an awards ceremony, only to be hired back at Runway as features editor by Irv Ravitz, over Miranda Priestly’s strenuous objections.
Meanwhile, Emily is a senior executive at Dior and controls a budget that can make or break magazines like Runway. As if that weren’t enough, she also has a powerful and extremely wealthy new beau in tech billionaire Benji Barnes, played by Justin Theroux.
Now, instead of a rivalry between two assistants trying to climb the ranks, the sequel pits journalists against executives. The stakes are higher, and the implications run much deeper.
Not Exactly Different People After All…
What makes the Emily and Andy rivalry work in the sequel, however, is that The Devil Wears Prada 2 subtly reveals how little either of them has truly changed since the original. Sure, Andy returned to Runway to take a job writing for an industry she fled ten years ago, still dazzled by its legacy. Emily, meanwhile, spent the last two decades in an industry obsessed with appearances and couldn’t care less, openly criticizing mourners for wearing certain brands at a funeral.
They aren’t that different after all. Neither of them is free from the clutches of the world Miranda Priestly created, yet both have chosen to stay anyway. In the process, they’ve grown to embrace a reality that the former once hated and the latter once ridiculed.
How Blunt and Hathaway Bring the Dynamic to Life
A large part of the credit, of course, goes to Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway. Their scenes together at the end of The Devil Wears Prada 2 have been described as shameless fan service. But it’s hard to call it that, considering how well the two actresses capture the complexity of characters who have matured in ways the original film never had time to fully explore.
Sure, Emily remains cold and calculating, while Andy’s earnestness still borders on obnoxious. But there’s a new layer to their interactions that the first movie never allowed. And it adds a whole new dimension to their dynamic.
Ultimately, their evolution makes it easier for audiences to look beyond the snarky dialogue and recognize genuine mutual respect beneath it all.