Reese Witherspoon has announced who will be playing Elle Woods in the upcoming Legally Blonde prequel series.
It was announced last year that Witherspoon and her production company Hello Sunshine are behind a spin-off TV series inspired by the early 2000s film franchise, which saw Witherspoon play sorority girl turned lawyer Elle Woods.
Taking to Instagram, Witherspoon shared an emotional video in which she broke the news to Lexi Minetree that she has landed the role of young Elle.
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"Allow me to introduce you to the new Elle Woods!" she captioned the video. "After watching so many incredible auditions for the new Elle prequel series on @PrimeVideo, we finally found our Elle. And today, I got to break the news myself! Meet @leximinetree".
In the video, Witherspoon sits the young actor down and tells her: "Your audition tape was amazing, as we talked about, and we had to make a really hard decision the other day and we wanted to tell you in person, because you've just worked really hard.
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"We just wanted to tell you that you don't have to audition anymore because you got the part. You're Elle Woods."
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After some excitable screams and tears of joy from Minetree, Witherspoon added: "I haven't slept in three nights. I wanted to tell you sooner."
Titled Elle, the Prime Video prequel series will follow the titular character in high school as we learn about the experiences that moulded her into the iconic young woman we first met in the 2001 film Legally Blonde and its 2003 sequel, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde.
A third Legally Blonde film, written by Mindy Kaling and Dan Goor, has also been in the works for several years.
The project was first announced back in 2018 and originally had a release date of May 2022, but it was delayed indefinitely.
Elle doesn't have a release date yet.
Social Executive, Entertainment Portfolio After completing her joint honours degree in Journalism and English Literature at Cardiff University, Iona joined Digital Spy as a Content Production Intern in 2022, where she wrote across both news and features, specialising in TV and movies. Following her internship, Iona continued contributing to the site as a freelance reporter, becoming social executive for the Hearst UK entertainment portfolio in summer 2025. Iona now leads the DS social channels, covering red carpets with stars such as Paul Mescal, Austin Butler, and more.
