The “Legally Blonde” prequel has found its Elle Wood in Lexi Minetree.
Minetree, who can be seen in “The Murdaugh Murders,” has been cast in the role of Elle Woods in the Prime Video series, which is titled, “Elle.” Minetree submitted her audition in a nationwide open casting call,
“Legally Blonde” star Reese Witherspoon, who is spearheading the new show, broke the news to Minetree. In the video, shared to social media Thursday, Witherspoon told Minetree said she wanted to share the news that she didn’t have to audition anymore because she “got the part.” Witherspoon also broke the news to Minetree’s mom.
“Allow me to introduce you to the new Elle Woods!” Witherspoon wrote on Instagram. “After watching so many incredible auditions for the new Elle prequel series on Prime Video, we finally found our Elle. And today, I got to break the news myself!”
“Elle,” which is produced by Hello Sunshine and Amazon MGM Studios, centers on “Elle Woods in high school as we learn about the life experiences that shaped her into the iconic young woman we came to know and love in the first ‘Legally Blonde’ film,” per the official logline.
Laura Kittrell (“High School,” “Insecure”) created “Elle” and serves as co-showrunner and executive producer alongside Caroline Dries. Witherspoon also executive produces the series alongside Lauren Neustadter, Lauren Kisilevsky and Marc Platt.
Witherspoon first shared the news of the prequel series during Amazon’s inaugural upfront presentation in May, a month after news broke that multiple “Legally Blonde” spin-off shows were in the works between Amazon MGM Studios and Hello Sunshine.
“I had this crazy idea that the world might want to know the origin story of Elle Woods, so here I am to officially tell you the most amazing news ever, which is that we are going back to high school with Elle,” Witherspoon told advertisers. “Before she became the most well-known Gemini vegetarian to graduate from Harvard Law School, she was just a regular ’90s high school girl and thanks to Amazon and Hello Sunshine, all you are going to get to know her in this new series.”
