'Legally Blonde' prequel series 'Elle' casts Lexi Minetree as young Elle Woods

Los Angeles: "Elle", the upcoming prequel series to Reese Witherspoon's hit “Legally Blonde” movies, has found its young Elle Woods in actor Lexi Minetree.

The series, backed by ‘Amazon MGM Studios’ and Witherspoon's production banner ‘Hello Sunshine’, will follow Woods during her high school years before she went off to Harvard. It will premiere on the streaming service ‘Prime Video’.

Witherspoon, who played Elle Woods in two movies in the 2000s, shared the news in a post on ‘Instagram’.

"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," she wrote alongside a video, featuring her and Minetree.

According to entertainment news outlet ‘Variety’, "Elle" marks the first lead TV role for Minetree, who earlier appeared in series like “Law & Order: SVU” and in TV movies like “The Murdaugh Murders”, “Crowdsource Murder” and “The Paramedic Who Stalked Me”.

The project was originally announced in May 2024 with Laura Kittrell as the creator. She also serves as co-showrunner and executive producer alongside Caroline Dries.

Witherspoon, Lauren Neustadter and Lauren Kisilevsky executive produce via ‘Hello Sunshine’ along with Marc Platt. ‘Amazon MGM Studios’ will produce.

Witherspoon had kick-started the movie franchise with 2001's "Legally Blonde", where she played the idealistic Elle Woods who follows her boyfriend to a law school in order to win him back. But in the process, she discovers a natural aptitude for the law.

A sequel, titled "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde", was released in 2003 and since then, there have been talks for a third part, but it is yet to materialise.