Reese Witherspoon gets major credit for ushering in the new Prime Video prequel Elle, which dropped July 1 and dives into a teenage Elle Woods. The Oscar winner served as exec producer and pushed for an open casting call that landed newcomer Lexi Minetree.
Reese originated the prequel idea and offered sharp 90s high-school insights to showrunners Caroline Dries and Laura Kittrell without micromanaging the writers room. “She wasn’t in the weeds with us that much with the story,” Dries told People, adding Reese tossed out “nuggets of gold” and made sure the era felt authentic.
Director Jason Moore noted Reese drew from her own mom life with kids Ava Phillippe, Deacon Phillippe and Tennessee Toth, while keeping an open mind in meetings. Exec producer Lauren Neustadter revealed Reese demanded thousands of open audition tapes starting September 2024, resulting in Lexi’s January 2025 casting.
The series explores the bend-and-snap years before Harvard Law, and insiders say Reese stepped back gracefully so the creative team could run with it. So… will Elle Woods stay iconic, or is this prequel the start of a whole new chapter?
