The Devil Wears Prada 2 ending explained: who ends up with Runway — and which original character turns traitor

The Devil Wears Prada 2 opened in the US on May 1, 2026, with David Frankel directing again and Aline Brosh McKenna writing again, and it made $693.1 million worldwide on a $100 million budget — the sixth-biggest film of the year. The setup is print journalism in 2026: Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) is fired by text message during an awards ceremony, Miranda (Meryl Streep) is dealing with the fallout from a Runway feature on a brand that turned out to use sweatshops, and Jay Ravitz (B.J. Novak) hires Andy as features editor without telling Miranda. Then the Elias-Clarke chairman dies, and the company is suddenly for sale.

Emily is the one holding the knife

Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt) is now senior at Dior, rich, and still furious about how Runway treated her. Her fiancé is Benji Barnes (Justin Theroux), and his money is what turns her grudge into a bid. The plan is to buy into the parent company, push Miranda out of the editor's chair, and take Runway for herself.

It nearly works, because Miranda's position is already weak — the sweatshop story cost her credibility, and an AI-money buyer is circling the whole media division.

Andy and Emily start the third act working the same problem from the same side. Emily is the only one who keeps working it after the problem is solved.

The counter-move is Benji's ex-wife

Andy and Miranda go around Emily entirely. They bring in Sasha Barnes (Lucy Liu) — Benji's former wife — who buys not just Runway but the whole Elias-Clarke corporation, with a promise of editorial independence attached. That single transaction does three things at once: it funds the magazine, it keeps Miranda in the job, and it blocks Emily's route in completely.

So the answer to who ends up with Runway depends on which sense of the word you want:

• Ownership — Sasha Barnes. She owns the corporation Runway sits inside.
• The masthead — Miranda Priestly. She keeps the editor-in-chief title and stays in line for the bigger media-division role she'd been angling for.
• The newsroom — Andy. She stays on as features editor, which is the job she was hired into behind Miranda's back in the first act.
• Nothing — Emily. The takeover collapses, and she exits with her Dior job, her money, and no magazine.

What Andy had to admit to get there

Andy's own compromise is the quieter half of the ending. To keep the magazine alive during the sale, she claims she has an interview with Sasha Barnes locked down. She doesn't. She gets it eventually, but she has to sit with the fact that she lied for the same reason anyone lies on a deadline — she needed the win. The tell-all book about Miranda that she's been circling all film gets dropped.

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Nigel (Stanley Tucci) gets the scene the first movie owed him. Miranda steps out of the spotlight at the Milan gala and hands him the stage.

Miranda's own line about the industry does the closing argument for her: they're all working on borrowed time, in a business that keeps cutting costs and chasing engagement.

Emily's last beat is with Andy, not with Miranda, and it isn't a punishment scene. Andy tells her she's iconic, which is the one thing Emily has been trying to get someone to say since 2006.

For the record: reviews landed at 78% on Rotten Tomatoes and 63 on Metacritic, and the opening weekend took nearly $77 million domestically.

Previously we wrote: The Drama ending explained (spoilers!)