We finally have a first look at Elle, the hotly anticipated Legally Blonde prequel series. Reese Witherspoon unveiled the first look at Lexi Minetree as Elle Woods on Instagram today. Witherspoon, who portrayed Woods in two Legally Blonde films, is executive producing the upcoming Prime Video series. Witherspoon also announced that the series is now in production.
Witherspoon announced the start of filming with the photo of a pink-garbed Minetree talking on a very-1990s clear plastic landline telephone, and its caption: “Harvard was hard. High School was harder. Our new series, Elle, is now in production!” Minetree was cast after an extensive search to play the iconic comedy role, spearheaded by Witherspoon herself. Starring alongside Minetree are June Diane Raphael (Grace and Frankie) as her mother, Eva, and Tom Everett Scott (That Thing You Do!) as her father, Wyatt. No other casting has yet been announced for the prequel series that will chronicle Elle Woods’ high school days before the events of the 2001 feature film.
What Is ‘Legally Blonde’ About?
Legally Blonde stars Witherspoon as Woods, a shallow UCLA sorority girl who finds herself unexpectedly dumped by her boyfriend, Warner (Matthew Davis); he intends to get into politics, and doesn’t believe she’s serious enough for him. Determined to prove him wrong, she applies for and wins acceptance to Harvard Law School (“Like it’s hard?”). Even though she’s an odd, pink-clad duck among her classmates, she soon excels in her classes, and ends up working for law professor Aaron Callahan (Victor Garber) on the high-profile murder trial of fitness instructor Brooke Windham (Ali Larter). Along the way, she helps exonerate Brooke, finds friendship with Warner’s new girlfriend and fellow law student Vivian (Selma Blair), and even has a whirlwind romance with Callahan’s junior partner, Emmett Richmond (Luke Wilson). The film was a huge hit at the box office, earning $142 million USD on an $18 million budget, and catapulted Witherspoon to superstardom. A less-successful sequel, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, followed in 2003, while a spinoff, Legally Blondes (starring Milly and Becky Rosso as Elle’s twin cousins, and not starring Witherspoon), was intended to serve as a pilot for a TV series, but instead went direct-to-DVD. A third film, which is to be written by Mindy Kaling, is in development.
Elle was created by Laura Kittrell (Insecure); she also serves as co-showrunner with Caroline Dries (Batwoman). Both are executive producers with Marc Platt and Witherspoon, Lauren Neustadter, and Lauren Kisilevsky via Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production company.
Elle is now in production; no release date has yet been announced.
via Collider