Reese Witherspoon Reveals First Look At The Legally Blonde Prequel Series

Elle Woods is making a comeback. On May 12, Reese Witherspoon unveiled the first look at her long-awaited Legally Blonde prequel series, Elle, revealing that the show is in production. The actor took to Instagram to share the first photo of star Lexi Minetree as the high school version of her iconic character, Elle Woods.

Minetree looked the part (what, like it’s hard?), sitting at a classroom desk in an all-pink romper, complete with a matching notebook and feather pen. “I'm so thrilled to introduce Lexi Minetree as Elle Woods,” Witherspoon wrote. “She is stepping into these pink shoes with so much grace, ambition and charm.” The actor commented on Witherspoon’s post, writing “Back to school.”

Minetree landed the role of young Elle Woods after a nationwide open casting call. Witherspoon announced her casting in February, sharing an Instagram video of her telling Minetree that she got the part. “Your audition tape was amazing,” she said, before showing footage from her audition, which was inspired by Elle’s Harvard admissions video from the original 2001 film.

What Is Elle About?

Witherspoon dressed as Elle Woods herself to announce the new series at Prime Video’s upfronts event in May 2024. While exact plot details are being kept under wraps, Elle will follow the famous blonde in her teenage years. “Before she became the most famous Gemini vegetarian to graduate from Harvard Law, she was just a regular ’90s high school girl,” Witherspoon said at the time.

June Diane Raphael and Tom Everett Scott have been cast as Elle’s parents, but other roles are being kept under wraps for now. Elle is scheduled to premiere on Prime Video in summer 2026.

But What About Legally Blonde 3?

Before Elle was announced, Witherspoon was working on Legally Blonde 3, which she revealed in 2018. After years of delays, she announced that Mindy Kaling and Dan Goor had been tapped to co-write the new sequel. However, there hasn’t been an update on the film since 2022, when she told USA Today that she felt motivated by the success of Top Gun: Maverick.

“I’m still hoping that Legally Blonde 3 is gonna come together in the right way,” she said. “It’s just like Top Gun. I loved the nostalgia piece they incorporated in it. So definitely that gave us a lot of inspiration about what we would want to do with Elle Woods and make sure that we had all those same touchstones that mattered to people [back] then.”