I went into The Devil Wears Prada 2 as a fan of the original movie, hoping the new 2026 film would measure up to its 2006 predecessor. What I genuinely didn't expect was to find myself brimming with emotion at any point, but it happened, and of all of the people to trigger it... Miranda Priestly? Leave it to Meryl Streep to make that happen.
It's at this point that I offer a spoiler warning, as I can't explain what scene made me well up with emotion without at least a few The Devil Wears Prada 2 spoilers. If you haven't seen the movie yet, I do recommend catching a screening at a theater near you. Based on the opening weekend box office, plenty of people already have, but if you need more takes on the film, see what the critics are saying.
Among the numerous callbacks to the original film is the reminder of how close Nigel (Stanley Tucci) came to partnering with James Holt (Daniel Sunjata) on a major business venture toward the end of The Devil Wears Prada, until Miranda (Meryl Streep) changed up the plan at the last second to secure her own foothold on Runway.
Sadly, when Andy (Anne Hathaway) brought this situation up to Nigel in the sequel, he didn't seem to remember it at first, because it turns out that wasn't the last time Miranda had done something like that. In the case of the James Holt situation, as I interpreted it, it wasn't like Miranda was intentionally trying to hurt her right-hand man – she was the one to put him up for that opportunity, after all – but he was absolutely a casualty of her machinations, and it had to hurt. At the time, Nigel's response to Andy was to say, "When the time is right, she'll pay me back," though he could only hope that was true.
Here we are, twenty years later, and Nigel's clearly experienced more ups and downs in his relationship with Miranda. Ever faithful to her, Nigel had stood off to the side of the Runway leader for years, and it turns out, Miranda was blind to one major aspiration. It also seems clear from what happened with Emily – we learn that Miranda pushed her out of Runway by finding her another job – that she has a tendency to justify some of her manipulative behavior when it affects the people she cares about, as long as they come out of it ok. Of course, the people affected understandably don't always see it that way.
In The Devil Wears Prada 2, after Andy learned that Nigel actually wouldn't mind spending a little time in the spotlight, she relayed that information to Miranda when the perfect opportunity arose. This is near the end of the movie, when Miranda and Andy have to jet off before Miranda's able to deliver the keynote speech in Milan. When Andy suggests that Nigel do it, Miranda is at first dismissive of the idea, certain he wouldn't want to. After Andy suggests otherwise, Miranda seems stricken, and this is where I started to feel really emotional.
"I would know if he wanted to... do things like that."
Streep's delivery of this line as Miranda looks ahead at where Nigel is standing broke my heart, and I'm still thinking about it. It's like she just realized she's missed something so completely obvious and feels awful about it. It's a redeeming moment for Miranda, for sure, and it only gets better now that she has a way to make it up to him.
For years, she's assumed incorrectly that Nigel was happy to be more of a behind-the-scenes person, and it somehow never occurred to her to consider otherwise. Maybe it's because Nigel genuinely does seem happy to work behind the scenes and literally walk behind Miranda when they're out in public, for the most part, but that doesn't mean he doesn't also want to step into the spotlight once in a while and receive the respect and recognition he's undoubtedly owed. It was a grave misjudgment on Miranda's part not to consider that sooner, and it's all over her face and in her voice when she realizes it.
Thinking back to the way Miranda's actions burned Nigel in the first movie -- one of the sadder notes for the story's ending -- I loved seeing Miranda recognize that she had something so major all wrong, and then seizing the opportunity to make it right and honor her friend. As much as it broke my heart to see her realization, it also filled it with joy to see her admit her mistake and make things right. I really think this might've been my favorite part in the whole movie.
