James Van Der Beek has joined the upcoming Legally Blonde prequel series! Elle, which will stream on Prime Video, follows a young Elle Woods during her high school years. While Reese Witherspoon originally played the budding lawyer in the 2001 movie and 2003 sequel, Lexi Minetree is set to play the character in the prequel.
James Van Der Beek joins Elle series
Dawson’s Creek star, Van Der Beek will play Dean Wilson, “the city’s new Mayoral candidate and current school district superintendent.” He will appear alongside June Diane Raphael, Tom Everett Scott, Gabrielle Policano, Jacob Moskovitz, Chandler Kinney, and Zac Looker.
The new television role comes months after Van Der Beek announced he was diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal cancer. "So, this is exciting… I'm going back to work for a bit," he captioned on his Instagram post. "Super excited to join this awesome cast in such a fun project." He added that he was almost as excited as his wife and daughters.
Fans are delighted to see the Dancing With The Stars alum back on their screens. He has kept his fans updated throughout his cancer journey. He announced his diagnosis in March and has shared the highs and lows of his experience on social media, so people are happy to hear he is well enough to book acting jobs and is looking to his future as an actor.
Produced by Reese Witherspoon under her Hello Sunshine company, Elle is set to be written by Gossip Girl masterminds Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage and will follow events that happened before we meet the character in 2001’s Legally Blonde. Laura Kittrell, known for working on shows like Insecure, will serve as showrunner and executive producer.
“Before she became the most famous Gemini vegetarian to graduate from Harvard Law, she was just a regular ‘90s high school girl. And all of you are going to get to know her,” Witherspoon wrote on her Instagram about the upcoming prequel.
Further press releases reveal the audience will learn about the titular character's life experiences which shaped her into the strong and confident gal we know and love. During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Witherspoon revealed that the success of Wednesday on Netflix inspired the show. “I was like, ‘We should do Elle Woods in high school!’ Because I wanted to see who she was before college, before law school, and I started having all these ideas.”
Witherspoon also admitted that she was nervous about the prequel and that the successful Top Gun sequel gave her peace of mind that you could return to classic characters. She told USA Today that she appreciated how Tom Cruise waited so long to return to that world and praised how the action filmed "incorporated" nostalgia.
The internet was anticipating who would play the young Elle Wood in the prequel. In February, Witherspoon announced she had cast Lexi Minetree as her mini-me. The Academy Award winner said it was “a really hard decision” to choose the prequel’s lead.
Elle will be the first leading role for Lexi Minetree, who only graduated in May 2024. Her resume includes Law & Order: SVU, The Murdaugh Murders, Crowdsource Murder, and The Paramedic Who Stalked Me. The actress has big (pink) shoes to fill as Elle Woods is one of the most iconic characters in modern movie history, and it's hard to think of anyone else taking on the role as the confident lawyer.
Elle is slated to arrive on Prime Video in summer 2026.