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Reese Witherspoon has finally found our new Elle Woods!
On Thursday (February 13), the original Legally Blonde star shared a major casting update for the highly-anticipated prequel series to the beloved film franchise, sharing a video on Instagram of her surprising actress Lexi Minetree with the news that she will take on the role that Witherspoon first made famous. Though she has big shoes to fill, the OG Elle appears to have total faith that she will make her proud.
"Allow me to introduce you to the new Elle Woods! After watching so many incredible auditions for the new Elle prequel series on @PrimeVideo, we finally found our Elle. And today, I got to break the news myself!" she wrote in the caption, welcoming Minetree into the Legally Blonde family.
In the video, Witherspoon surprised Minetree with the good news, praising her audition and even explaining how she had to do double take when she first saw her because of how similar they looked and sounded, joking, "When I saw her tape, I was like, 'Are we the same person?'"
"Your audition tape was amazing, as we talked about, and we had to make a really hard decision the other day," she told Minetree. "We wanted to tell you in person because you've just worked really hard, and we just wanted to tell you that you don't have to audition anymore because you got the part. You're Elle Woods!"
Minetree was understandably thrilled, bursting into tears and hugging the Morning Show actress before excitedly asked if they could call her mom.
According to Variety, the Legally Blonde prequel series will follow a young Elle Woods pre-Harvard Law, focusing on the character's high school years and "the real life experiences that shaped her into the iconic young woman we came to know and love in the first Legally Blonde film."