The First Photo Of Young Elle Woods Is Here

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 Has Begun

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. She confirmed production had begun in early April.

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. A couple months later, production on Elle officially began, and Witherspoon marked the occasion by sharing the first photo of Minetree in character as Elle.

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.”

The Rest Of The Cast Is Coming Together

While Elle’s parents only had brief appearances in the Legally Blonde movies, they’ll play a much larger part in her origin story. Elle’s mom Eva will be played by June Diane Raphael, with Tom Everett Scott playing her father, Wyatt.

The series has also confirmed a trio of Elle’s high school classmates. Jacob Moskovitz will play a star athlete named Miles who has a soft spot for Elle. Chandler Kinney will make Elle’s life difficult as Kimberly, a senior who isn’t particularly fond of the future lawyer. And Gabrielle Policano will play a character named Liz, who’s simply described as “the anti-Elle Woods.”