For years now, Reese Witherspoon has been considering bringing back the cultural icon that sparked Ariana Grande music videos, Kim Kardashian’s halloween costume and a lot of bend and snapping. And after announcing the impending arrival of Legally Blonde 3 in May 2020, she’s keen to remind us that the silence doesn’t mean the movie is dead in the ground. Just last year, the star insisted the project was still happening. What’s more, an iconic star is set to make her return too.
Getting out their pink scented paper to pen the script is Mindy Kaling, who most recently wrote Netflix’s hit show Never Have I Ever, alongside Dan Goor (creator of Brooklyn-Nine-Nine) and Reese herself taking on a co-producer role with her production company Hello, Sunshine. But we all went into panic mode when late last year everyone’s favourite star Jennifer Coolidge said she had not received a call about returning for the third film. “I know nothing, I mean I don’t know if they wanted to surprise me or something, ’cause I hear about it a lot,’” Jennifer told Entertainment Tonight at The White Lotus season two premiere. “I heard that Mindy has this amazing version of our next round, but I haven’t seen it. I don’t have the call yet.”
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Now though, speaking to Entertainment Tonight at the premiere of her new rom-com Your Place or Mine, Reese gushed about how happy she was for Jennifer’s recent acclaim and success, as well as confirming she would be involved in the third film. “She deserves every one of those flowers she is receiving right now. And she’s just one of those people who is so naturally gifted and funny and that you can just tell people love her, ’cause she gets up there and everybody’s like, ‘I love her,’ but she’s just done a lot of good work in our business for so long, that it’s really nice to see her getting this incredible moment.” She then added: “There is no Legally Blonde 3 without Jennifer Coolidge.” We can all calm down now.
Legally Blonde 3 is still very much in its early stages though, and although Reese is thankfully involved — in this house we don’t talk about Legally Blondes — and it won’t go ahead without Jennifer, no other castings are confirmed. Might we see the return of Selma Blair as frenemy Vivian? Luke Wilson as Elle’s normcore husband? Linda Cardellini as the permed-convict Chutney?
In an interview with USA Today, Reese shared her hopes that the third film will “come together in the right way,” crediting the success of Top Gun: Maverick — a sequel to a movie made literally 37 years ago — as proof that there’s still an appetite for nostalgia. “They waited a long time to make another version of [Top Gun], and I loved the nostalgia piece they incorporated in it. So definitely that gave us a lot of inspiration about what we would want to do with Elle Woods and make sure that we had all those same touchstones that mattered to people (back) then.”
“I feel like these characters are my friends, so I safeguard them,” Reese continued. “I would never make the subpar, mediocre version of their story.”
So, after winning cases with her extensive knowledge of perm maintenance in the first film and fighting animal testing at the supreme court in the second, where is Elle heading to next? “I think it’d be kind of a cool thing to have her be a Supreme Court justice or somebody who runs for office or president,” Reese said way back in 2017. Elle Woods for president? She’d have our vote.