Reese Witherspoon Crowns the Next Elle Woods in ‘Legally Blonde’ Prequel Series
Get ready, Legally Blonde fans—there’s a new Elle Woods in town! Amazon MGM Studios and Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine have officially cast Lexi Minetree (The Murdaugh Murders) as the lead in their upcoming prequel series.
Minetree was one of the top contenders for the role, originally played by Witherspoon in the hit 2001 film Legally Blonde and its 2003 sequel, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde. Now, she’s stepping into Elle’s iconic pink heels to bring her high school years to life.
The big news broke on Feb. 13 when Minetree shared an emotional video on social media of herself calling her mom. In her caption, she wrote, “Ok ok ok, my brain is going nuts over here I don’t even know where to BEGIN. Probably with the thank you’s…ya that’s a good place to start normally, nice thinking Lexi!”
Witherspoon, who has been closely involved in the series, made the announcement herself on Feb. 14. She took to social media, writing, “Allow me to introduce you to the new Elle Woods! 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.”
Fans flooded the comments with excitement, especially thrilled that a rising star landed the role. One person wrote, “I’m so so happy an actual regular person has been cast!! Dream come true for so many people 🫶🏼🫶🏼 congrats girl you’re going to smash it out the park.” Another fan added, “Wowowow this is amazing girl. Congratulations, I’m so glad they chose an up-and-coming actor for this role, I can’t wait to see you take on Elle! 💖”
The new series, titled Elle, will explore Elle Woods’ high school years, showing the experiences that shaped her into the confident, unstoppable young woman we met in Legally Blonde.
The show is being helmed by creator Laura Kittrell (High School, Insecure), who will serve as co-showrunner and executive producer alongside Caroline Dries. Reese Witherspoon, Lauren Neustadter, Lauren Kisilevsky, and Marc Platt are also on board as executive producers.
Minetree is represented by Stewart Talent, Framework, and Jackoway, Austen, Tyerman.
