Legally Blonde TV Series In Development From Reese Witherspoon & The Creators Of Gossip Girl

Reese Witherspoon’s comedy classic Legally Blonde is headed for the small screen, with a TV series now in development. Released in 2001, Legally Blonde followed Witherspoon’s Elle Woods, a sorority girl who tries to win back her ex-boyfriend by attending Harvard Law School and becomes a successful lawyer in the process. The movie was a box office success, grossing $141.8 million against a production budget of $18 million, and spawned a theatrical sequel, but the long-gestating Legally Blonde 3 has yet to materialize.

Now, according to Deadline, Witherspoon is finally revisiting one of her most iconic roles, but in a different medium. The actor is developing a Legally Blonde TV show through her Hello Sunshine production company, while Gossip Girl‘s Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage are attached to write and executive produce. The details of the project have been kept under wraps. Additionally, a second potential spinoff series is reportedly in the idea stage.

Would A Legally Blonde TV Show Work?

Legally Blonde Has A Lot Of Potential As A Show

Legally Blonde worked due to its simple yet high-concept fish-out-of-water storyline, and had just enough jokes, plot twists, and character arcs to make for a well-rounded and enjoyable movie. Whether or not this translates well to a serialized format remains to be seen, and this is something that the creative team is going to need to figure out. However, The Lincoln Lawyer‘s season 3 renewal shows that there is certainly a market for legal drama-comedies that have been translated from film to TV, so a Legally Blonde show could certainly thrive.

The sequel was less successful, and tried to take the original’s concept further, but was restricted by its feature-length runtime. A TV show would allow for a more expansive exploration of cases that could become central to the series’ narrative, and would allow the show to introduce and flesh out multiple characters in the process. The original Legally Blonde ranks as one of Witherspoon’s best movies, and how the show would fare against it will depend on a lot of factors, such as casting, scripts, and the narrative direction of the series.

While plans for a Legally Blonde TV show are very much in the early stages of development, the fact that Witherspoon is involved should be viewed as an encouraging sign. The Oscar-winner, via Hello Sunshine, has a strong track record of developing acclaimed TV projects, including Big Little Lies, Little Fires Everywhere, and The Morning Show. Hopefully, she can add another successful credit with the development of the Legally Blonde show, and that it will do justice to the source material.

Source: Deadline