The ‘Legally Blonde’ Prequel, ‘Elle,’ Will Premiere Next Summer

We’re about to get more Legally Blonde. (What, like it’s hard?) The movie’s star, Reese Witherspoon, and her Hello Sunshine company are officially developing a Legally Blonde spinoff TV series inspired by the original at Amazon MGM Studios, according to Deadline. The premise? A prequel about her beloved character Elle Woods’s high school years.

This is not the first time the story has been mined for more material: There was a sequel titled Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde in 2003 and a direct-to-video spinoff Legally Blondes, in 2009, which actually served as a pilot for a potential series back then. Mindy Kaling and Dan Goor have also been working on a Legally Blonde 3 for a number of years, too.

Here’s everything we know about the new show expanding on the world of Elle Woods.

What is Elle going to be about?

According to Variety, the Legally Blonde spinoff series will be a prequel to the original film. It will follow a high-school-age Elle Woods and show viewers a bit of her backstory.

“I truly couldn’t be more excited about this series! Fans will get to know how Elle Woods navigated her world as a teenager with her distinct personality and ingenuity, in ways that only our beloved Elle could do,” Witherspoon said in a statement reported by Deadline. “What could be better than that?! I’m extremely grateful to the incredible teams at Prime Video and Hello Sunshine–along with our amazing writer Laura Kittrell–for making this dream of mine come true. Legally Blonde is back!”

Laura Kittrell, who previously produced High School and Insecure, will serve as Elle’s showrunner and co-producer. Also on the production team are Legally Blonde producer Marc Platt, and Witherspoon, Lauren Neustadter, and Lauren Kisilevsky with Hello Sunshine.

In an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in January 2025, while promoting her comedy You’re Cordially Invited, she talked a bit more about how they generated the idea, saying she was inspired by watching Netflix’s Wednesday.

“I loved it, I watched every episode, I thought it was amazing,” she said. “I was like, ‘We should do Elle Woods in high school,’ because I wanted to see who she was before college, before law school, and I started having all these ideas, and these amazing writers came up with a great pitch and now Amazon is making the show and it’s called Elle.”

Who is in the cast of Elle?

So far, the series has found its young Elle Woods in Lexi Minetree, a newcomer who has appeared in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and The Murdaugh Murders. Witherspoon announced Minetree’s casting with an Instagram video revealing how she broke the news to the young actress.

“Allow me to introduce you to the new Elle Woods!” Witherspoon wrote in the caption. “After watching so many incredible auditions for the new Elle prequel series on @PrimeVideo, we finally found our Elle. And today, I got to break the news myself! Meet @leximinetree.”

June Diane Raphael (Grace and Frankie, Burning Love) will play Elle’s mom Eva, who is “polished, pragmatic and thrives on keeping things picture-perfect,” according to Deadline.

Since the show will be depicting Elle’s teenage years before the events that take place in Legally Blonde, it’s hard to guess which other characters from the film, if any, would return for the series. It’s unclear if Witherspoon will make any cameos (maybe in flash-forward scenes?) or whether younger versions of other characters would appear, like Elle’s love interest Emmett, played by Luke Wilson, and her bestie at the nail salon, Paulette, portrayed by the hilarious Jennifer Coolidge.

In her interview with Fallon, Witherspoon shared how interesting it was trying to cast a young Elle Woods.

“I have to pick a girl to play the young me,” she explained, adding that there are “so many” audition tapes “and it’s so fun to watch.”

“I just love them all so much and they’re doing such a good job,” she said. “But they’re killing it, and now it’s a really hard decision.”

Has production begun yet?

According to Variety, development for the project was officially reported in April 2024. In January 2025, Witherspoon People that principal photography was scheduled to start in March of that year.

On April 2, Prime Video confirmed production was underway with a still of Lexi Minetree in character as Elle.

When is the release date?

Elle is set to premiere in the summer of 2026, Witherspoon announced, though exact date is still unclear at the moment. The news was unveiled at Prime Video’s upfront presentation in New York City on May 12, according to Deadline.

This story will be updated.

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