‘Elle’: James Van Der Beek Joins Upcoming ‘Legally Blonde’ Prequel Series!!

Today, Prime Video announced a major development in the upcoming Legally Blonde prequel series. The streamer revealed through Deadline that none other than ’90s heartthrob James Van Der Beek has joined the cast in a recurring role. The Dawson’s Creek and Apartment 23 star will share the screen with the new Elle Woods (Lexi Minetree), but at this point we don’t know in how many episodes he will participate. A release date for Elle is yet to be announced.

Per Deadline, Van Der Beek will play the city’s new mayoral candidate and current school district superintendent, Dean Wilson. Since the new series covers Elle Woods’ high school years, this may suggest that Dean Wilson and the young girl will go head-to-head on different occasions. In the movie series, Elle became known for not catering to people in positions of power, so the series might show how the future lawyer developed her backbone.

Aside from Minetree and Van Der Beek, Elle has already announced a pretty hefty cast that includes June Diane Raphael (Abbott Elementary) as Elle’s mom Eva and Tom Everett Scott (The Summer I Turned Pretty) as Elle’s dad Wyatt, as well as Gabrielle Policano (Babygirl), Jacob Moskovitz (Isle Child), Chandler Kinney (Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin), Zac Looker (Geek Girl), Jessica Belkin (Singing in My Sleep), Logan Shroyer (This Is Us), Amy Pietz (Tracker), Matt Ober (Hacks), Chloe Wepper (Family Switch), David Burtka (Cicada), Brad Harder (Jingle Bell Run), Kayla Maisonet (The Rookie), and Lisa Yamada (Cruel Summer).

What Has James Van Der Beek Been up to?

The Dawson’s Creek alum guest-starred in several shows after his own ended. He was in Ugly Betty, Criminal Minds, One Tree Hill, Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother and played none other than himself for two seasons of Apartment 23. He was also in the procedural series CSI: Cyber and Friends with Better Lives. Recently, he was in the Jay & Silent Bob Reboot and guest starred in Overcompensating, Pose, and Walker.

Elle is created by Laura Kittrell (Insecure), who shares showrunning duties with Caroline Dries (The Vampire Diaries). Original Legally Blonde star Reese Witherspoon (The Morning Show) is executive producing the series, and Jason Moore (Shotgun Wedding) is attached to direct the first two episodes. Should Elle manage to become popular, the story will have quite a gap to fill, since the 2001 movie kicks off after Elle graduates from college.