Prime Video has released the first official trailer for Elle, the upcoming Legally Blonde prequel series starring Lexi Minetree as a teenage Elle Woods. The highly anticipated series premieres on 1 July, with all eight episodes launching exclusively on Prime Video. Ahead of its debut, Prime Video has already renewed the show for a second season. Clearly, Prime Video has a lot of faith in Elle Woods, and honestly, same.
Created by Laura Kittrell (High School, Insecure), Elle takes viewers back to 1995 and explores the experiences that shaped Elle Woods long before she became the ambitious Harvard Law student audiences fell in love with in Legally Blonde. Season one follows Elle as her world is turned upside down when her parents decide to move the family from their privileged life in Bel-Air to Seattle at the height of the grunge era. Suddenly far removed from everything she knows, Elle must navigate new friendships, first love, family challenges and the often chaotic reality of high school… “What, like it’s hard?”
According to Prime Video, the series will explore how Elle grows into the confident and determined young woman fans know from the films, while also focusing on her close relationship with her mother and the family support system that helps her through life’s challenges.
Lexi Minetree leads the cast as Elle Woods alongside June Diane Raphael as her mother Eva and Tom Everett Scott as her father Wyatt. The series also stars Chandler Kinney, Jacob Moskovitz, Gabrielle Policano, Zac Looker and Amy Pietz, with recurring appearances from Jessica Belkin, Lisa Yamada, David Burtka and the late James Van Der Beek, in one of his final screen roles.
The series is executive produced by Reese Witherspoon, who famously played Elle Woods in the original Legally Blonde films, and Lauren Neustadter through Hello Sunshine, alongside Amanda Brown, Marc Platt and Caroline Dries. Jason Moore (Pitch Perfect) directed the first two episodes.
For CultureCues, the trailer was quite different from what we expected, and that is a good thing. We assumed the series might simply show a younger version of the Elle Woods we already know, but the move from Bel-Air to Seattle gives the story a fresh angle and immediately creates a challenge for the character. It also looks like the series understands exactly what people love about Elle. The pink outfits are already iconic, the energy feels fun and optimistic, and Lexi Minetree seems to capture the warmth and determination that made the character so memorable in the first place. Honestly? We are already rooting for her.
We have a feeling this might become one of the summer’s most talked-about new shows.
Elle premieres exclusively on Prime Video on 1 July.
Nikki Murray is a UK-based writer, screenwriter and founder & editor of CultureCues, covering film, television, music and pop culture. Her work focuses on storytelling and the moments shaping modern entertainment.