‘Legally Blonde’ Prequel Series ‘Elle’ Is Just the Latest Franchise Installment in Reese Witherspoon’s Enduring Empire

Samantha Bergeson
·2 min read
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Reese Witherspoon has bent and snapped her way into a full-fledged “Legally Blonde” empire.

After playing L.A. sorority girl turned Harvard Law School student — and arguably, feminist icon — Elle Woods in 2001, Witherspoon has led sequel “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde” and is slated to star in a third film written by Mindy Kaling and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” co-creator Dan Goor. Kaling previously teased that the third film will center on Elle Woods reevaluating both her career and her perspective on life at age 42, telling Time magazine that she would never want the character to “be canceled or become a Karen.”

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While the status of that trilogy installment is still unknown, given that the feature was announced in 2022, Witherspoon has turned instead to building out the “Legally Blonde” brand through TV.

IndieWire can confirm that a “Legally Blonde” prequel series titled “Elle” is in the works at Prime Video, with Witherspoon producing. “Elle” is created by Laura Kittrell, who will also serve as showrunner. The series is centered on Elle Woods in high school leading up to the events in the first movie.

A spinoff TV series is also set at the streamer, with Witherspoon believed to be reprising her role. “Gossip Girl”-reboot creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage are writing and executive producing, with Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter also executive producing through Hello Sunshine.

Witherspoon compared the legacy of “Legally Blonde” to the iconic now-franchise “Top Gun,” with sequel “Top Gun: Maverick” resurrecting the ’80s film. Witherspoon told USA Today in 2022 that she felt protective about steering the “Legally Blonde” franchise in the right direction.

“I’m still hoping that ‘Legally Blonde 3’ is gonna come together in the right way,” she said. “It’s just like ‘Top Gun’: They waited a long time to make another version of that movie, and I loved the nostalgia piece they incorporated in it. So definitely that gave us a lot of inspiration about what we would want to do with Elle Woods and make sure that we had all those same touchstones that mattered to people [back] then.”

Witherspoon added, “I feel like these characters are my friends, so I safeguard them. I would never make the subpar, mediocre version of their story.”

And Elle Woods isn’t the only former character Witherspoon is returning to: The mogul actress will star in and produce “Election” sequel “Tracy Flick Can’t Win” from writer/director Alexander Payne.

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