What, Like It's Hard?
Elle Woods Enters Her Version Of Hell In The Legally Blonde Prequel Trailer
The long-awaited TV series, produced by Reese Witherspoon, premieres on July 1.
It’s time to bend and snap because Elle Woods is making her grand return — well, almost. On May 6, Prime Video unveiled the first teaser for the long-awaited Legally Blonde prequel series, Elle, which will capture Reese Witherspoon’s iconic lawyer in her high school years, played by Lexi Minetree. And to her younger self, Elle might as well be equivalent to a horror movie.
In the new teaser, Elle Woods seems to be exactly what you expected before going to Harvard: bubbly, popular, and slightly spoiled, as seen by her birthday party, which looked extra enough to be featured on MTV’s My Super Sweet 16. But her parents, played by June Diane Raphael and Tom Everett Scott, drop the bomb that they’re moving from Los Angeles to her version of hell: Seattle.
Elle must trade her sunny pool days and fabulous friends for 24/7 rain, and gasp, classmates who aren’t blonde and wear sweatpants. “I’m feeling very blonde,” she tells her mom, who notices a peer with platinum hair. “Mom, her roots,” she gasps.
“We meet her in 1995 as a fish in the tumultuous waters of high school where she encounters tricky friendships, forbidden romance, and questionable fashion choices,” the synopsis reads. “With each challenge she faces, Elle grows closer to the Elle Woods we know and love today.”
Witherspoon, who serves as an executive producer and found Minetree in a nationwide casting call, teased Elle to Bustle in March, revealing that Elle would be taken far out of her comfort zone. “It’s her junior year of high school, and her father gets transferred to Seattle,” she says. “It’s such a mismatch. It's really fun to see Elle Woods as this fish out of water in 1990s grunge-era Seattle.”
Although Elle is younger and still finding herself, rest assured that the series will still include beloved Legally Blonde hallmarks. “It was actually a great exercise in going back through the original two movies and finding the specificity of character, like Elle Woods and her dog are both Gemini and vegetarians, all the little details of what she wore, how she likes Prada,” she says.
Elle will begin streaming on Prime Video on July 1, and fans won’t have to wait long for her story to continue, as the series has already been renewed for a second season.
