‘Legally Blonde’ Prequel Series Casts Lexi Minetree as Young Elle Woods

Reese Witherspoon is ready to pass the pink baton to a new Elle Woods.

The actress took to Instagram on Thursday to announce that Lexi Minetree has been cast as Elle Woods in the upcoming Legally Blonde prequel series Elle, which will follow Woods during her high school years before she went off to Harvard.

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“Allow me to introduce you to the new Elle Woods! After watching so many incredible auditions for the new Elle prequel series on @PrimeVideo, we finally found our Elle. And today, I got to break the news myself,” Witherspoon captioned the post.

In the video (below), Witherspoon is shown speaking with Minetree before telling her the exciting news.

“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,” Witherspoon said.

Minetree is then showing crying and immediately wanting to call her mom to tell her the news.

“When I saw her tape I was like, ‘Are we the same person?'” Witherspoon quipped to Minetree’s mom after her mom told her that they sounded alike.

Witherspoon, who originated the role in the 2001 movie Legally Blonde and its 2003 sequel, has been candid about her search to pick the new Elle Woods.

While appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Witherspoon had shared that it has been “so fun to watch” all the audition tapes, adding, “I just love them all so much and they’re doing such a good job.”

Witherspoon will exec produce the upcoming series via her Hello Sunshine banner. Series creator and showrunner Laura Kittrell is also executive producing, along with Hello Sunshine’s Lauren Neustadter and Lauren Kisilevsky, and Marc Platt, producer of the Legally Blonde films.

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