There’s a plan for Elle Woods to return to theaters for the first time in more than 20 years with Legally Blonde 3 — and cowriter Mindy Kaling is giving the best update she can.
“I don’t have any power here,” Kaling, 45, told Time in an interview published on Wednesday, February 19, while discussing her upcoming Netflix series Running Point. “It’s an MGM, Amazon, and Hello Sunshine thing. Dan Goor and I wrote a draft that we really like. We hope it sees the light of day.”
“At least with TV, I have slightly more power,” she continued. “But with this one, we’ll see what happens. I’m always low-key working on it. It’s, like, writing fan-fic except it’s the actual three-quel.”
MGM first announced that Legally Blonde 3 was on the way in 2018 and Reese Witherspoon, who played Elle Woods in the first two films, confirmed she was ready to reprise her role.
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Though the process has been slow-moving, Kaling said that could work to the movie’s advantage.
“Jennifer Coolidge, since the time we started this project, has had this renaissance with The White Lotus,” she explained. “If you put Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Coolidge in a movie right now, I don’t know a single person who wouldn’t run to the theaters to see it. And they’re already the two stars of Legally Blonde? That’s fantastic.”
Kaling hasn’t revealed much about the script since being tapped to write it, but did say in 2021 that the movie would depict Elle at age 40.
“I love Elle Woods as a character and when Reese asked me to write it I was like, ‘Absolutely!’” she told People in 2021. “I can’t wait to see what people will think of the way we wrote Elle Woods. We wrote Elle Woods at 40, so how Elle is at 40 versus how she was at 21 has been really fun to imagine.”
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Meanwhile, a Legally Blonde prequel spinoff TV series is in the works at Amazon MGM Studios. Witherspoon, 48, is an executive producer on the series, called Elle, and confirmed in January that it was currently casting.
“I’m really excited because we’re going through the casting process right now and we’re picking who is going to play the young me,” she told People at the time. “It’s kind of a trip.”
Witherspoon and the series’ crew ultimately chose Lexi Minetree for the part. Minetree, 24, shared the decision via Instagram on February 13 with a video of Witherspoon breaking the news to her.
“We had to make a really hard decision the other day and we wanted to tell you in person because you just worked really hard,” Witherspoon said in the video, appearing ready to deliver some bad news to the actress. “We just wanted to tell you that you don’t have to audition anymore because you got the part. You’re Elle Woods!”
An emotional Minetree then hugged Witherspoon and the pair called Minetree’s mom together to tell her.
The first two Legally Blonde movies, released in 2001 and 2003 respectively, grossed more than a combined $250 million at the box office and spawned a Broadway musical and direct-to-DVD movie in addition to the series and upcoming third official installment.
