Devil Wears – Misryoum examines how Anna Wintour’s central role and Vogue’s near-total embrace could soften the satire—and reshape what the sequel is really about.
The question hanging over the new *Devil Wears Prada* isn’t whether it will look gorgeous—it almost certainly will. It’s whether it will keep the sharpness that once made its world feel dangerous.
That edge starts to blur with the sheer density of publicity around the film’s current campaign. and with Anna Wintour’s carefully cultivated presence at its center.. Misryoum notices a pattern beyond this franchise: recent tours for major movies have leaned into meta performances. treating publicity like part of the story.. Timothée Chalamet’s viral stunts for *Marty Supreme* played with versions of himself; Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo’s *Wicked* moments turned friendship on screen into a public emotional shorthand.. But the *Devil Wears Prada* publicity run has a special kind of self-awareness—one that risks turning satire into something more comfortable. even flattering.
Wintour isn’t just participating.. She’s positioned as game enough to embrace the caricature that the original film sharpened.. In the first movie, Miranda Priestly—played by Meryl Streep—was a marvel of controlled cruelty.. The jokes landed because her competence was paired with a relentless indifference: details of “incompetence” didn’t matter. and the human cost of professional power was treated as a kind of weather system.. Misryoum reads the original comedy as a satire of the machinery of influence, not merely a roast of a boss.. The second film, though, appears to arrive in a cultural moment that prefers caricature to bite.
There’s a practical logic behind the shift, and the campaign already signals it.. With a hit film. the calculation changes: it’s easier—and often more beneficial—to be inside the tent than outside it.. Misryoum sees that in the way Wintour’s role evolves from distant emblem to active collaborator. as if the industry that once feared exposure now wants to curate it.. For viewers who remember the first film’s sharper temperature. that shift can feel like the joke is being negotiated in real time.
The “defanged” feeling isn’t only editorial—it’s tonal.. Trailers and promotional materials suggest a sequel that returns Andy to Miranda’s orbit while leaning into nostalgic callbacks.. One line in particular. delivered through Nigel’s voiceover. frames Runway as “a winding road that brings us together again.” Misryoum hears the language of reunion and cohesion. less the language of threat and humiliation that made the first story feel so pointed.
On the surface, the campaign reads like a celebration of brands, book culture, and fashion-as-content.. Vogue’s involvement has been unusually comprehensive: red-carpet fashion coverage. a book club pick centered on the novel that inspired the first film. and a podcast built around Wintour’s former assistants.. Misryoum doesn’t treat these as neutral marketing artifacts.. In cultural terms. it’s a reallocation of attention—from the film’s critique of power to the industry’s ability to stage itself as the story’s habitat.
The most telling contrast comes from the first film’s arrival.. Misryoum remembers how the early publicity ecosystem worked differently: fashion designers and Wintour kept their distance because the risk was real—“everybody was afraid. ” as later recollection frames it.. In that earlier moment, the costume job mattered because it became the bridge between satire and spectacle.. Costume designer Molly Rogers has explained that designers understood the film could offer “best in the world placement.” That’s the twist: satire can be lucrative. but it’s not always willingly absorbed by the institutions it mocks.
For this sequel, Vogue’s proximity changes the meaning of everything around it.. When the magazine that once represented the taste-making hierarchy treats the film as a continuous editorial project. the satire stops being a distant correction and becomes a shared brand language.. Misryoum also sees why the industry might prefer that outcome now.. Contemporary culture increasingly blurs boundaries between fiction and reality. and the line between “character” and “person” is now part of how public life is performed.. The campaign strategy doesn’t just sell a movie—it models a social agreement: that the caricature can be worn without threatening the wearer.
Even Wintour’s own framing—now described as Chief Content Officer at Condé Nast rather than the Vogue editor—reads like a smoothing mechanism.. She’s not simply a figure being referenced; she’s a figure helping to steer the narrative.. When she describes calling Meryl Streep about the sequel and receiving reassurance, the message is calm, almost paternal.. Misryoum interprets that tone as a shift from critique to continuity: the story becomes something the establishment can handle. and even promote. without feeling exposed.
And yes. the sequel will still have what the original delivered so reliably well: fashion as narrative shorthand. glamour as both lure and armor.. On screen. the film can function like a high-gloss catalog. with clothes associated with major houses appearing as part of the spectacle.. But Misryoum expects the emotional math to change.. In the first film, the tension came from the sense that professionalism was a trap that ran on humiliation.. In a second film that markets reunion. “together again. ” and softer re-entry into Miranda’s orbit. the question shifts—from what power costs. to how power can be survived with style.
That doesn’t mean the new *Devil Wears Prada* will be harmless.. Misryoum is simply wary of how easily bite can be replaced by recognition.. Satire works when it insists on distance—when the target feels briefly unreachable, untouchable.. When the target starts starring in the promotion, the joke can lose its teeth.. The sequel may still be funny.. But the cultural identity question lingers: will it critique the machine. or will it invite you inside. show you the gears. and then ask you to clap?
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