Why Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci Couldn’t Say No to ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’
Nearly two decades after strutting through the halls of Runway magazine, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci are back where it all began. ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ reunites Blunt and Tucci alongside Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, with all four reprising their iconic roles in the long-awaited sequel directed once again by David Frankel. And now, the cast is opening up about what finally convinced them to return.
Speaking with Jenna Bush Hager for TODAY, Tucci put it simply: audiences never stopped loving the original. “I think people are hungry for it,” he explained. “Arguably, it has become a classic film. It endures, and people seem to have not been able to get enough of us. So here we are.” It is hard to argue with that logic, and the warm reception the sequel is already generating suggests he read the room correctly.
For Blunt, the pull to return was deeply personal. She described stepping back into the role as “touching and moving and weird,” reflecting that the original film “certainly changed my life in a huge way” and that she carries a strong sensory memory of making it.
Despite those emotions, Streep and Hathaway were reportedly the harder sells, with Streep initially said to have little interest in a sequel and Hathaway expressing she would only return under the right circumstances. Getting all four back in the same room clearly took some doing.
In a joint interview with Entertainment Weekly, Blunt spoke candidly about her character Emily Charlton’s arc in the sequel, describing her as someone “willing to claw over someone’s back to steal anything” and noting that she sees the character as more desperate than cruel. Emily has since left Runway behind and risen to become a senior executive at a luxury fashion house, positioning her in direct competition with Miranda and the struggling magazine.
Tucci, meanwhile, explained that Nigel’s choices in the film come from a place of genuine loyalty and admiration, describing him as someone who has quietly watched Andy’s career from a distance and knows Runway is “on quicksand” and needs help. The emotional depth both actors bring to these returning roles is a big part of why the sequel feels like more than just a nostalgia play.
There is also the small matter of family. Tucci married Emily Blunt’s older sister Felicity in 2012, having met her at the premiere of the original film, which adds a very real layer of warmth to what is already a deeply personal reunion for the pair. During press appearances, the two have leaned into the dynamic with humor, joking about the unusually intertwined nature of their personal and professional lives.
‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ began principal photography in June 2025, shooting across Manhattan and Milan before landing in theaters on May 1, 2026. With the core four now open to a potential third installment provided the script earns it, Blunt has made clear that any future chapter would require all of them on board, calling them “the core four.”
Let us know in the comments whether you think the original cast made the right call coming back for this one.
