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Reese Witherspoon was inspired to pursue a Legally Blonde prequel after seeing Netflix's Wednesday

Amazon Prime Video's Elle, which is has narrowed down is prospective stars to a list of two, came about while the original Elle Woods was binging Netflix's take on Addams Family

News by Grant DeArmitt, Staff Writer

Published on Tue Feb 11 2025

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Expect pink smoke to come wafting out of the MGM Studios chimney soon - a new Elle Woods is about to be announced. As reported by Deadline, Amazon's Legally Blonde prequel series, Elle, has narrowed its search for a younger Elle Woods to two actors, Madison Wolfe and Lexi Minetree. However, had it not been for a different, albeit much darker, teen sensation, the search for the new Elle might not have happened at all.

According to Reese Witherspoon, the idea to explore Elle's younger years came from watching Jenna Ortega's Wednesday.

Oscar winner (and original Elle Woods) Witherspoon was recently on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to discuss the prequel series, which sees her partnering with Prime Video. But it was a Netflix series she seemed determined to talk about (per Deadline again), particularly the chart-topping Addams Family adaptation currently filming its second season.

"I loved it," Witherspoon said of Wednesday. "I watched every episode, I thought it was amazing."

(To be fair, Reese, there are only eight episodes available to watch as of that interview, but we won't scoff at what seems to be genuine enthusiasm for the series.)

Witherspoon continued, "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."

As of now, Elle does not have an Amazon Prime premiere date, though we expect Wednesday season 2 to release on Netflix sometime in 2025.

Fade to credits, then a pop-up of what to ~~watch~~ read next - just like Netflix:

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Grant DeArmitt: Grant DeArmitt (he/him) likes horror, comics, and the unholy union of the two. As Popverse's Staff Writer, he criss-crosses the pop culture landscape bringing you the news and opinions about the big things (and the next big things). In the past, and despite their better judgment, he has written for Nightmare on Film Street and Newsarama. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner, Kingsley, and corgi, Legs.