Elle (2026)

Elle (also marketed as Elle: From the World of Legally Blonde) is an American comedy television series developed by Laura Kittrell, serving as a prequel to the Legally Blonde franchise. The series takes place six years before the events of the first film and it explores the high school years of teenage Elle Woods (originally portrayed by Reese Witherspoon), portrayed by newcomer Lexi Minetree.

The series is helmed by showrunner Kittrell and is executive producing alongside Witherspoon and producer Marc Platt. Production began in April 2025. It premiered on July 1, 2026. In January 2026, the series was renewed for a second season.

Premise

A prequel to Legally Blonde, the series explores Elle Woods’ teenage years in the 1990s as a high school student in Seattle, long before she became the ambitious Harvard law student in the films.

Cast

Main

Lexi Minetree as Elle Woods, a 16-year-old girl whose life is turned upside-down when she has to move from Los Angeles to Seattle

June Diane Raphael as Eva Woods, Elle's mother who is trying to make the best of her living situation

Tom Everett Scott as Wyatt Woods, Elle's father, a plastic surgeon who tries to see the best in every situation

Jacob Moskovitz as Miles Cohen, a cross country star runner at Rainier West High School who takes an interest in Elle

Gabrielle Policano as Liz Miller, an out and proud lesbian at Rainier West High School whom Elle befriends

Chandler Kinney as Kimberly, a mean girl at Rainier West High School whom Elle tries to befriend

Zac Looker as Dustin, a British student and activist for Rainier West High School who is interested in Elle

Amy Pietz as Donna Miller, the secretary at Rainier West High School in Seattle that Elle goes to and Liz's mother

Recurring

Matt Oberg as Principal Shane Anderson, the principal of Rainier West High School

Jessica Belkin as Madison LeDoux, Elle's best friend in Los Angeles

Kayla Maisonet as Tiffany, one of Elle’s Los Angeles friends

Logan Shroyer as Hot Josh, a boy in Los Angeles who Elle has feelings for

Lisa Yamada as Amber, one of Elle’s Los Angeles friends

Chloe Wepper as Ms. Burke, Elle's chemistry teacher at Rainier West High School, later acting principal.

David Burtka as Chad Cohen, one of Miles’ dads who befriends Elle’s parents

Danielle Chand as Shannon Walker, a stylish girl that Elle tries to befriend, Kimberly's best friend and Miles' ex-girlfriend

James Van Der Beek as Dean Wilson, the current superintendent and Medina's new mayoral candidate

Brad Harder as Charlie Cohen, Miles’ other dad and Chad’s husband who befriends Elle’s parents

Episodes

Production

Development

As a planned Legally Blonde 3 languished in development hell, in April 2023, it was announced that after acquiring MGM, Amazon had plans to expand the Legally Blonde franchise with a television series in development.

On May 14, 2024, Amazon Prime Video announced a new upcoming prequel series, Elle with Laura Kittrell developing the series. In a statement, Reese Witherspoon, who hosted the announcement, said that viewers "will get to know how Elle Woods navigated her world as a teenager with her distinct personality and ingenuity, in ways that only our beloved Elle could do." The series is co-showrun and executive produced by Kittrell and Caroline Dries. Jason Moore directed the first two episodes of season one and serves as an executive producer. Reese Witherspoon, Lauren Neustadter, Lauren Kisilevsky, Marc Platt and Amanda Brown, the author of Legally Blonde novel, also serve as executive producers.

In January 2025, Witherspoon said in an interview that she was inspired to create the spinoff series after watching Netflix's Wednesday series starring Jenna Ortega. "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," Witherspoon said. "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 and these amazing writers came up with a great pitch and now Amazon is making the show and it's called Elle."

In January 2026, the series was renewed for a second season.

Casting

In February 2025, newcomer Lexi Minetree was cast as Elle Woods, who was originally portrayed by Witherspoon in the original films.

In March, June Diane Raphael and Tom Everett Scott were cast as Elle's parents, Eva and Wyatt. In that same month Chandler Kinney, Gabrielle Policano and Jacob Moskovitz joined the cast as Kimberly, Liz, and Miles. In April, Zac Looker, Jessica Belkin, Logan Shroyer, and Amy Pietz joined the cast as Dustin, Madison, Josh, and Donna. In May, Lisa Yamada, Chloe Wepper, David Burtka, Brad Harder, Kayla Maisonet, and James Van Der Beek, in what would be his final role before his death, joined the cast in key recurring roles. In February 2026, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan joined the cast for the second season as Sam.

Filming

Principal photography began on April 2, 2025, in Vancouver, including in places such as Point Grey Secondary School and Granville Island and concluded on July 22, 2025. Filming for the second season began on March 4, 2026, and wrapped on June 19, 2026.

Release

Elle premiered on July 1, 2026.

Reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes holds a 55% approval rating based on 44 critic reviews, with an average of rated reviews of 5.3/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Lexi Minetree brings sparkle and excellent mimicry to rehashed proceedings in Elle, a mildly entertaining case study adhering to the confusing laws of prequel nostalgia." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 52 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

References

External links

Official website

Elle at IMDb