Prime Video’s Legally Blonde series has found its Elle Woods, and I’m delighted for the comeback of one of the best ‘00s movies

Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods in the original Legally Blonde movie

Lexi Minetree has been cast as a young Elle Woods in Prime Video's Legally Blonde prequel series, Elle. (Image credit: Prime Video)

Prime Video has cast Lexi Minetree in its Legally Blonde prequel series.
It marks Minetree's first TV lead of her career.
Reese Witherspoon is returning to executive produce the project, who starred as Elle Woods in the original Legally Blonde movie in 2001.

Prime Video announced plans to produce a Legally Blonde prequel series last year, and now that the streaming platform has finally cast its young Elle Woods, we’re another step closer to the revival of my ultimate comfort movie – and I can’t contain my excitement.

Yesterday (February 13), Amazon MGM Studios and Reese Witherspoon, who originated the role of Elle Woods in the 2001 movie, announced that Lexi Minetree (Law and Order: SVU & The Murdaugh Murders) has been cast as the lead in the new Prime Video series titled Elle, following Deadline’s report that Minetree and Madison Wolfe were the remaining two contenders for the role. This will be Minetree’s first TV lead role, which is speculated to arrive on one of the best streaming services in late 2025.

Witherspoon made the announcement on Instagram (see below), posting a video of her telling Minetree the good news in person stating: “We had to make a really hard decision the other day and we wanted to tell you in person because you’ve just worked really hard. And we just wanted to tell you that you don’t have to audition anymore because you got the part. You’re Elle Woods”.

What can you expect from Prime Video’s Elle?

Although we don’t have an exact date for Prime Video’s Legally Blonde prequel series other than its rumored arrival for late 2025, the streaming platform has given insight to what we can expect to see from its story. Taking place prior to her venture into Harvard Law School the series follows a young Elle Woods in her days at high school, chronicling her earlier life and experiences that helped her become the icon that we know and love from the movie.

It’s no argument that Reese Witherspoon carried the original movie with her unforgettable portrayal of Elle Woods and I’m relieved that she’s returning to the world of Legally Blonde as one of the show’s executive producers, alongside Lauren Neustadter, and Lauren Kisilevsky, and show creator Laura Kittrell. Since it’s confirmed that Witherspoon is involved with the Prime Video project, I have my fingers crossed that we’ll be reunited with more familiar faces from the original movie – I’m talking about you, Jennifer Coolidge.

Indeed, as far as comfort movies go, Legally Blonde (2001) is one I often revisit and it’s even better now that it’s one of the best Prime Video movies as it was added to the service as part of everything new in February in the US (it's also available in the UK but Australians will have to head over to Stan or MGM to stream the original movie).

Rowan is an Editorial Associate and Apprentice Writer for TechRadar. A recent addition to the news team, he is involved in generating stories for topics that spread across TechRadar's categories. His interests in audio tech and knowledge in entertainment culture help bring the latest updates in tech news to our readers.