Prepare to bend and snap once again with perhaps the most iconic lawyer of all time, the one and only Elle Woods! Sadly, we're not talking about the long in-the-works Legally Blonde 3 that still hasn't come to fruition after initially being set for release in May 2020. But Elle will still be returning to our screens in some form very soon thanks to Reese Witherspoon's latest project.
Last May, Prime Video picked up a prequel series called Elle, which travels back in time to follow Witherspoon's famous character in high school. Before she studied fashion merchandising for her undergraduate degree, became a sorority president, and made a name for herself at Harvard Law School, who was Elle Woods when she was a bubbly, precocious teenager?
While promoting her new Prime Video romantic comedy You're Cordially Invited, Witherspoon dropped by The Tonight Show and chatted with Jimmy Fallon about her new movie and the upcoming Elle prequel series. Not only did the Oscar winner give a new update on the status of the hotly anticipated series, but she also shared the hit Netflix series that sparked the idea.
Wednesday inspired the Legally Blonde prequel series
You would think that a popular Netflix teen comedy like Never Have I Ever (which was co-created by Witherspoon's friend Mindy Kaling and even featured her son Deacon Phillippe in a couple episodes of season 3) would have inspired the forthcoming Legally Blonde prequel series, but it was a much spookier teen series. Instead, Wednesday triggered the concept for Elle.
Here's what Witherspoon said about Wednesday inspiring Elle:
"I saw that Wednesday Addams show, and I was like, 'Oh, she was in high school.' I loved it, I watched every episode, I thought it was amazing, and 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. These amazing writers came up with a pitch, and now Amazon is making the show."
Wednesday debuted on Netflix back in November 2022, a few months before word first hit in April 2023 that Amazon was exploring a television series idea in the Legally Blonde franchise. The new slant on The Addams Family franchise became an instant pop culture phenomenon, and it's not surprising that Reese Witherspoon was one of the millions of fans to binge-watch the series.
As a producer, she's always keeping up on the latest hits, and we can be grateful for Jenna Ortega's Emmy Award-nominated performance for helping the lightbulb go off in Witherspoon's brain for the Legally Blonde origin story we didn't know we needed. Elle even took inspiration from the Wednesday's title, making the series an eponymous celebration of the leading character.
In addition to revealing what brought her to conceive Elle, Witherspoon also offered the latest update on the show's development with Fallon. She revealed that she's currently watching hundreds of audition tapes of young women vying for the role. It's unclear when filming will begin or when the show will be released, but the creative team is taking their time to find the right Elle Woods.
Before the casting call went wide last fall, fans had been hoping to seeing Grammy Award winner Sabrina Carpenter take on the role of young Elle (even though at 25, she's about the same age Witherspoon was in the first Legally Blonde movie in 2001). Honestly, finding a talented young star and giving her a big break seems like the perfect route for the prequel series.
Stay tuned for more news and updates from Show Snob!