Adrian Grenier not returning for ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ sequel

Well, it looks like they don’t have grilled cheese in Boston after all, as the internet-dubbed “real villain” of The Devil Wears Prada, Adrian Grenier’s Nate Cooper, will not return for the sequel.

Entertainment Weekly has exclusively learned that the Entourage star will not be in the sequel, two sources familiar with the situation reveal.

Plot details for the project are still under wraps, though EW reported last year that all original stars — including Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci — were expected to return for the follow-up.

Director David Frankel, who helmed the original en route to a $327 million global box office haul and two Oscar nominations, and writer Aline Brosh McKenna, have also returned in their original capacities.

20th Century Studios confirmed Monday that the film had entered production, which is set to last through the summer. (Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for parent company Disney and Grenier for comment.)

Adapted from former Vogue assistant to Anna Wintour Lauren Weisberger’s book of the same name, the 2006 Devil Wears Prada film followed Andy Sachs (Hathaway) as she navigated the dizzying world of New York fashion journalism while working as an assistant to the intimidating Miranda Priestly (Streep), the cold, condescending editor in chief of the fictional Runway magazine.

Along the way, Andy’s relationship with Nate begins to sour as her career picks up, and the pair eventually separate after a string of negative exchanges, including Andy showing up late for Nate’s birthday party. They ultimately get back together in the final scene, after Andy quits Runway and later agrees to move with Nate to Boston, where he’s set to pursue his dream of becoming a chef.

This led many fans to label Nate as the true villain of the film, after he didn’t support his lover in her pursuit of journalism prowess.

“All those memes that came out were shocking to me. It hadn’t occurred to me until I started to really think about it, and perhaps it was because I was as immature as Nate was at the time, and in many ways he’s very selfish and self-involved, it was all about him, he wasn’t extending himself to support Andy in her career,” Grenier previously told EW of the internet’s reaction to Nate in recent years, in a 2021 oral history reunion with the cast and crew.

He continued, “At the end of the day, it’s just a birthday, right? It’s not the end of the world. I might’ve been as immature as him at the time, so I personally couldn’t see his shortcomings. But after time to reflect and much deliberation, I’ve come to realize the truth in that perspective.”

Elsewhere in that interview, Frankel revealed that there were light talks about doing a sequel many years ago.

“[The studio] didn’t ask for [a sequel]. We had a meeting where we said, ‘What could we do if there was a sequel?’ Maybe it was stupid; we felt like, No, this story has been told.… Lauren eventually wrote another book following up 15 years later. We came to the same conclusion, that just following the characters wouldn’t be the same,” Frankel said at the time, while Weisberger added: “There have been a lot of conversations about it. I wouldn’t say it’s out of the realm of possibility.”

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

McKenna also speculated to EW that a sequel might not be possible in a way that fans expected.

“Magazines and publishing have changed so much,” she noted. “This is a period of time where [Andy] took a physical book to someone’s house every day so she could leaf through it. Maybe they still do that, but I doubt it. It had its moment!”

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is expected to be released in 2026.