The Legally Blonde prequel has ‘f inally found’ its Elle Woods after Reese Witherspoon made a casting announcement on social media.

The Amazon MGM Studios project called Elle will follow Elle Woods in her high school years, exploring the experiences that shaped her into the confident and pink-loving lawyer as seen in the 2001 film.

The original movie was an instant hit, grossing nearly $150 million worldwide, and spawned its 2003 sequel Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde. Legally Blonde: The Musical was later created and released in 2007.

In a video shared on Instagram, Reese Witherspoon reveals Lex Minetree will be the actress who will take on the role of a young Elle Woods in the prequel series.

“Allow me to introduce you to the new Elle Woods!”, the caption read on social media. “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!”.

In the video, Reese Witherspoon said: “I wanted to say your audition tape was amazing, as we talked about, 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.

“And we just wanted to tell you that you don’t have to audition any more because you got the part, you’re Elle Woods”.

Lexi Minetree is most famous for playing Bailey Swann in The Murdaugh Murders as well as appearing in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and Serov. Madison Wolfe of True Detective was also reportedly among the actresses earmarked to play Elle Woods.

Produced by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, the audition process saw dozens of young actors vying for the star-making role that originally propelled Witherspoon to Hollywood A-list status.

Elle is set to begin filming in March 2025 and is expected to be released in 2026 on Prime Video. Reese Witherspoon, who starred as the main character in the comedy in 2001 and 2003, will serve as an executive producer on this series.

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