Elle Woods Will Be 40 Years Old in 'Legally Blonde 3'

"How Elle is at 40 versus how she was at 21 has been really fun to imagine," Mindy Kaling said.

Elle Woods Will Be 40 Years Old in 'Legally Blonde 3'

For many years, Legally Blonde 3 was just a dream held by fans of the first two Reese Witherspoon films about a California sorority girl who conquers Harvard Law School and Washington, D.C. But every once in a while, dreams do, indeed, come true.

“I think it would be cool,” Witherspoon said on Fashionably Late With Rachel Zoe in October 2015. “I think we're ready to see Elle and see what she's up to lately. A lot of writers over the years have come up with different ideas for it. I actually think it’s kind of great right now because we’re talking about women in politics and how important that is to get more women. And I think it’d be kind of a cool thing to have her be a Supreme Court justice or somebody who runs for office, president.” Then, in 2017, she kept hope alive. “We've thought about it,” she told E! News. “I need somebody really clever to come up with a great idea and we'll do it.”

Well, it looks like that finally happened. In June 2018, Witherspoon posted a video of herself floating in a pool à la Elle's Harvard application video with the caption “It’s true... #LegallyBlonde3.”

There isn't a lot of information yet, but here's everything we know so far about Legally Blonde 3.

The cast. Witherspoon is definitely on board, but there's no official word yet on who might be joining her. “It's just a development project right now, so we'll see,” Witherspoon told Entertainment Tonight in October 2019. “I love Jennifer Coolidge and Luke Wilson and Selma Blair and so there's so many great characters that people love. If we end up doing it, hopefully, they end up all being there.”

“I hear that it is going, but I just don't know what the timeline is,” Coolidge has said of bringing Paulette back to the big screen. “But you know, if I'm asked to do it, I'll definitely be in there.”

By January 2021, Coolidge was listed as a member of the cast on IMDB, along with Alanna Ubach and Jessica Cauffiel, who played Elle's besties, Serena and Margot, in the first and second movies.

“I have not talked to Reese about it, but yeah, I always kind of hear rumors here and there,” Wilson told ET in May 2020. “Never anything official about them doing another Legally Blonde, but I'd love to do another one. I mean, just that character Reese played was so funny at the time and that has kind of become this iconic character now.”

The original cast reunited (virtually) in October 2020 for a special in support of World Central Kitchen. During the Zoom, Witherspoon revealed the lasting impact of the movies and Elle Woods. “I don't think any of us knew what this film was going to turn out to be or how much it was going to inspire young women and young people across the world,” she said. “I travel the entire world, and always the movie that people stop me about is Legally Blonde. And the thing that actually really touches my heart is more people stop me and say, ‘I went to law school because of Elle Woods.’ Which is really amazing.”

She said, unsurprisingly, that she gets asked to do the “bend and snap” often and that the line that seems to stand the test of time is “What? Like it's hard?”

Watch the cast, below:

The script. On May 18, 2020, ET reported that Mindy Kaling and Dan Goor will write the script for the third movie.

Wilson has some ideas about what Elle and Emmett are up to, but no official comment has been made about the storylines. “I would say they definitely have a few children, and I just think that it'd be really funny if Reese had a little mini me, a version of herself,” he said. “I would definitely think that they'd have a couple of children.”

Kaling confirmed that she will cowrite the script on Instagram. “Finally some use for my Elle Woods fan fiction! So excited to be reunited with my friends @reesewitherspoon @laurenneu and Dan Goor to work on this movie. Elle Woods is so iconic, proving you can be girly and smart at the same time. Bend and snap people,” she wrote.

Witherspoon commented on the news too. “Great news alert!! Some things are just meant to be!😜I’m SOOO excited to have @MindyKaling and #DanGoor writing Legally Blonde 3! 💖💫This is #ElleWoodsApproved!” she wrote on Instagram.

The release date. After delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the movie finally has a release date: May 2022.

https://twitter.com/MGM_Studios/status/1318683538783313920

However, on January 8, 2021, Kaling told Access Hollywood, that she still doesn't know when production will begin. "I don’t know when we’ll be able to shoot movies again, but it would be great to—if Reese likes the script—shooting it this year would be awesome," she said.

Elle Woods will be 40 years old. "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," Kaling also told Access Hollywood, per People.