The Legally Blonde Prequel Series Has Cast Its Young Elle Woods

Before she was owning the courtroom, Elle Woods was just trying to get through high school. The new Legally Blonde prequel series Elle will explore what the unstoppable fashionista’s teenage years were like, and with a new time period comes a new Elle. Reese Witherspoon will still be on board as an executive producer for the show, but a new actor will be donning the hot-pink couture to play a teenage version of the future lawyer.

Elle was first announced in May 2024, with Witherspoon confirming the Prime Video series will be set before the collegiate events of Legally Blonde. “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.

The announcement came in the midst of the long-delayed third installment of the Legally Blonde movies. Legally Blonde 3 was confirmed in 2020 and supposed to premiere in 2022, but has since been pushed back to an undecided date.

While the prospects for this third movie haven’t been the best, fans of the franchise can look forward to diving into Elle relatively soon, it sounds like.

Filming Is About To Start

Witherspoon gave a promising update on Elle’s status in a Jan. 29 People interview. “I'm really excited. We start in March,” the EP confirmed.

The Next Elle Woods Has Been Revealed

In February, the new Elle Woods was announced to be Lexi Minetree. Witherspoon revealed the casting in a cute video, sharing the big news with Minetree for the first time.

This marks Minetree’s first leading role. She’s previously appeared in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and the historical spy drama Serov.

“Ok ok ok, my brain is going nuts over here I don’t even know where to BEGIN,” Minetree wrote on Instagram upon getting cast. “Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to [Reese Witherspoon] for handing me down Elle Woods. I already love her so so much, I promise she’s in good hands.”