There was one way we'd agreed to do Devil Wears Prada 2, says Meryl Streep

When a Devil Wears Prada sequel was announced, 20 years after the release of the original, the one question on many people's lips was "why?".

For Meryl Streep, who plays the Anna Wintour-inspired Miranda Priestly, editor-in-chief of Runway Magazine, there was a key condition for taking part.

"There was one way that we would sign on to do a sequel," she tells BBC News. "If it spoke to the moment."

Indeed, the film mirrors real-life developments in the world of journalism - staffing cuts, dwindling print numbers and digital domination.

"Everything has to have its own necessity for being - even the frothiest sort of fun movie," Streep says.

Co-star Stanley Tucci adds the film is "dealing with the issues of today - the loss of control that journalists have because of social media and AI".

It was always going to be difficult trying to replicate the success of the original 2006 film, which is still regularly quoted in popular culture and has recently become a West End musical.

But rather than replicating the original, is the new film more a reflection of changing times?

"One of the things I think the film does really well is show you have to participate in the world you want to live," fellow lead actor Anne Hathaway says.

"I hope people realise the fate of journalism really rests on them and if you believe in it, you believe it's important - I personally do."

Three-time Oscar winner Streep "absolutely hopes that people do take hope from this".

"It sounds like we've made [the 2015 film] Spotlight or something but no, we've made The Devil Wears Prada - there's a lot of fun and fashion," she jokes.

This is echoed by Tucci, who calls the film "a nice bit of escapism" at a time when "the world is in a very chaotic place".

Emily Blunt, who also stars in the second film, is able to call Tucci family thanks to the first instalment (she introduced her sister to Tucci at the original film's premiere - they've now been married for 14 years).

She says she wants "people to have a joy bomb - go [see it] with their friends, laugh, cheer and enjoy the nostalgia bank that the movie is".

The sequel, once again written by Aline Brosh McKenna and directed by David Frankel, is packed with beautiful designer outfits, celebrity cameos such as Marc Jacobs and Naomi Campbell, as well as iconic locations like New York and Milan.

And the much-loved leads - Tucci as Miranda's creative director, Nigel Kipling, and Hathaway as Andy Sachs who returns to Runway as its new features editor, are sharp in their portrayals.

Blunt reprises her role as Emily Charlton, who is no longer an assistant at the magazine and now works as a high-up executive in luxury retail.

While there are still "snarky one-liners" and moments of wit in the sequel, the characters find themselves in a "whole new landscape", Blunt says.