Streep & Hathaway turn Seoul
Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway used a Seoul film stop for The Devil Wears Prada 2 to create a mini fashion moment, reuniting nearly 20 years after the original and drawing crowds that turned the promo into a style event. (filmibeat.com) The appearances underline Seoul’s role as a global fashion stage — press noted the reunion’s cultural weight and the way film promotion is now inseparable from public fashion signaling. (newsable.asianetnews.com)
Seoul did not get a routine sequel stop this week. It got Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway walking into “The Devil Wears Prada 2” promotion like the movie’s fashion politics had spilled offscreen and into the city. (yahoo.com) The Seoul appearance landed just weeks before the film’s May 1, 2026 theatrical release, and Disney’s official materials confirm that Streep, Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci are all back for the sequel. (video.disney.com, 20thcenturystudios.com) What turned the stop into news was not just the cast list. Fashion press treated the Seoul event itself as part of the performance, with coverage focused on Hathaway’s and Streep’s outfits as much as the movie they were promoting. (wwd.com, aol.com) That reaction only makes sense if you remember what the first film was. The 2006 “The Devil Wears Prada” turned a magazine office into a mass-market fantasy about power dressing, career ambition, and the price of fitting in, and it made more than $326 million worldwide. (boxofficemojo.com, the-numbers.com) The sequel is also bringing back key people behind the camera. 20th Century Studios lists David Frankel as director, Aline Brosh McKenna as writer, and Wendy Finerman as producer, which makes this less like a brand reboot and more like the old machine starting up again. (20thcenturystudios.com) Seoul was not a random backdrop for that restart. The Seoul Metropolitan Government says Seoul Fashion Week is Korea’s largest fashion event, and the 2025 fall-winter edition marked its 25th anniversary with shows spread across Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Seongsu, Cheongdam, and Hannam. (english.seoul.go.kr) The city has been building that image for years by tying fashion to public space and pop culture. Seoul’s own fashion-week promotion has used major Korean celebrities, expanded beyond trade-only shows, and pushed the city as a place where style is something you see on the street, not only on a runway. (english.seoul.go.kr, koreajoongangdaily.joins.com) That is why a movie about a fashion magazine fits Seoul unusually well. A “Devil Wears Prada” stop in Seoul lets the studio sell a film, lets luxury styling coverage travel instantly, and lets the city appear in the same frame as two of the franchise’s defining faces. (yahoo.com, english.seoul.go.kr) The cast list adds another layer to the reunion story. Disney and 20th Century Studios list Kenneth Branagh, Simone Ashley, Justin Theroux, Lucy Liu, Pauline Chalamet, and B.J. Novak among the additions, which signals a sequel built to feel larger than a nostalgia cameo. (20thcenturystudios.com, video.disney.com) By the time Streep and Hathaway reached Asia on this tour, the campaign had already started behaving like a rolling fashion week. Coverage from Shanghai and other stops has followed the clothes, the labels, and the visual contrast between Miranda Priestly and Andy Sachs almost as closely as the plot. (wwd.com, khaleejtimes.com) So the Seoul moment was not just two stars revisiting a hit from 2006. It was a studio using a city with an established fashion identity to remind audiences that, for this franchise, the promo circuit is part of the story and the wardrobe is part of the script. (20thcenturystudios.com, english.seoul.go.kr)
