Reese Witherspoon Reveals New Elle Woods for ‘Legally Blonde’ Prequel Series

A new Elle Woods has officially been picked to follow in Reese Witherspoon’s legacy. After it was announced that the actress was developing a Legally Blonde prequel series through her Hello Sunshine production banner that will follow Elle Woods in high school, many wondered who would be taking on the role of the beloved character pre-law school. Witherspoon finally made the announcement on her social media on Thursday, revealing that Lexi Minetree has been cast as Elle.

In a sweet video, Witherspoon told Minetree the great news in person, first saying that she wasn’t going to be auditioning anymore and then telling her that she got the role. Minetree called her mom to tell her the news, who was just as excited as ever. The video also shared some of Minetree’s audition tape, which was in true Elle Woods fashion, taking pointers from her application video for Harvard.

While appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon earlier this month, Witherspoon shared via The Hollywood Reporter that it’s been “so fun to watch” the audition tapes. “I just love them all so much, and they’re doing such a good job.” News of Minetree’s casting comes less than a year after it was announced that Witherspoon, who originated Elle Woods in 2001’s Legally Blonde and 2003’s Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, was producing a new series for Amazon MGM Studios, with details later revealing it would be about Elle in high school.

“I truly couldn’t be more excited about this series! 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 via Deadline at the time of the prequel news. “What could be better than that?! I’m extremely grateful to the incredible teams at Prime Video and Hello Sunshine – along with our amazing writer, Laura Kittrell – for making this dream of mine come true. Legally Blonde is back!”

Reese Witherspoon will executive produce Elle via Hello Sunshine. Series creator and showrunner Laura Kittrell will executive produce as well, alongside Hello Sunshine’s Lauren Neustadter and Lauren Kisilevsky. Legally Blonde producer Marc Platt will also executive produce. As of now, no other details have been revealed, but now that Elle has been chosen, it shouldn’t be long until more casting news is announced.