The Legally Blonde Prequel Show's Trailer Reveals Unexpected Setting Change

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 is 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. While there’s a lot of excitement around this new chapter in Elle’s life, a recent trailer has also totally thrown fans for a loop.

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 just in time for Legally Blonde’s 25th anniversary.

Filming Began In January 2025

Witherspoon gave a promising update on Elle’s status in a Jan. 29, 2025 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 Was 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 Came 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.”

High School Starts Summer 2026

In Jan. 21 Instagram Reel, Witherspoon revealed the exact premiere date for the new series, which will come to Prime Video on July 1 — in other words, it’s coming just in time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Legally Blonde.

The First Trailer Divided Fans Over An Unexpected Location Change

When the first trailer for Elle dropped on May 6, Legally Blonde fans were left a bit confused. In the clip, it’s revealed the show will follow Elle as she’s forced to leave Bel Air and start a new life in Seattle, Washington due to her father’s new job. While this set-up is sure to deliver hilarious moments of pink and perky Elle clashing with the northwestern city’s ‘90s grunge scene, many fans felt like the premise undercut the significance of the 2001 movie.

“If she experienced the same culture shock and learned the same lessons before why did she have to go through it again 4 years later,” one viral response read. “Elle Woods in Legally Blonde is the quintessential rich LA girl which is why Harvard is such a fish out of water experience for her… what do you mean she lived in Seattle,” another reply pointed out.

In that same vein, several other viral reactions to the trailer called out the prequel’s story as being redundant.

Season 2 Is Already Confirmed

Witherspoon revealed that the new series was already renewed for a second season. “I just got off the phone with Amazon, and they loved the show so much, they ordered a Season 2,” she told the cast over FaceTime.