When we first heard Prime Video was making a Legally Blonde prequel, we had concerns. Big ones. Does anyone actually need to see Elle Woods before she was Elle Woods? Can lightning strike twice, or in this case, twenty-five years later? And most importantly: could anyone possibly fill Reese Witherspoon's definitely not last season’s Prada stilettos?
If you’re like me, the release of Legally Blonde in 2001 was a cinematic game-changer. Not only did we get a blonde heroine, but the movie also encouraged thousands of girls to pursue law. And even though I wasn’t a Gemini vegetarian like Elle Woods, I, like many others, felt like she was a kindred spirit. So when Prime Video announced they'd release a prequel called Elle, with Reese as executive producer, I knew loyal fans were in for quite the bend and snap of emotions!
Newcomer Lexi Minetree takes on the impossible task of playing a teenage Elle Woods and somehow makes it look easy, which, honestly, feels very on-brand for a show about a girl everyone underestimates. This isn't Harvard Law, Elle. This is 1995, Elle. It's a Smells Like Teen Spirit Elle in pink flannel, and somehow it works.
Say what you want about prequels leaning on nostalgia (we'll wait), but Elle uses its 90s setting as more than just a costume change. Think Clueless meets Freaks and Geeks. The wardrobe itself is enough to transport you back to a time when you waited in line for Beanie Babies and walked around with your Lisa Frank Trapper Kepper. The show’s writers had Elle trade Rodeo Drive for the Pacific Northwest mountains, and somehow it works.
Is Elle a little familiar? Sure.
We won't pretend Elle reinvents the wheel.
If you've seen the original film, you'll clock the Easter eggs coming from a mile away—the underestimated heroine who stops trying to fit in and starts owning who she is. Some critics have called it more of a remake than a prequel, and honestly? Fair. But there's a reason we keep watching stories like this one. Familiar doesn't mean forgettable, especially when the execution is this charming.
You know what the best thing about Elle Woods is? She's never really been about the plot twists. She's about the feeling, you know, that specific confidence of a woman deciding she's done being underestimated. Elle bottles that feeling and hands it to a new generation, while quietly reminding the rest of us why we fell for the original in the first place.
So no, it's not hard to fall for Elle. In fact, it might be the easiest yes of the summer.
What, like it's hard?
Add us as a preferred source on Google