On Location peels back the curtain on some of your favorite films, television shows, and more. This time, we take a look at The Devil Wears Prada 2.
A sequel? Of a 2000s hit movie? Groundbreaking, a certain cut throat magazine editor might retort. The highly anticipated release of Devil Wears Prada 2 has had skeptics, fans, and super fans speculating as to whether it could possibly live up to the deliciously sardonic dialogue and spectacular fashion of the original. After all, how do you capture the spirit of a film that feels so firmly rooted in the city and time it was filmed in? A lot of that, of course, comes down to the locations, which this time serve as a backdrop to the high pressure act of being Runway magazine’s Miranda Priestley in a changed, and somewhat struggling, media landscape. (Case in point: In 2026, Miranda flies coach.)
“We wanted to do what we did with the first one, but crank it up a little bit more with the locations,” says production designer Jess Gonchor, who worked on both movies. “Just like we have with the dialogue and the cast.”
Set firmly in the present day, the sequel charts the return of Andy Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway, to Runway, no longer as Miranda’s naive and flustered assistant but as an established journalist signing on as features editor. With her joins much of the original cast—Meryl Streep as the indomitable Miranda, Stanley Tucci as the loyal Nigel, and Emily Blunt as the pugnacious Emily, who has left the publishing world in favor of luxury retail. There’s also the addition of the preposterous billionaire Benji Barnes, played by Justin Theroux, and cameos from Donatella Versace and Lady Gaga. Familiar New York City locations also return, while spots reflecting a contemporary version of the city also make an appearance. This time, though, the arc of the story reaches its crescendo in Milan, not Paris.
Below, Gonchor shares some of the real life places chosen for the movie, what it was like to navigate the hoards of fans trying to catch a glimpse of filming, and how the crew recreated one of the most famous (and hard-to-see) tourist attractions in Italy.
