Witherspoon and her company Hello Sunshine are behind the Legally Blonde spin-off television series in development at Amazon MGM Studios and inspired by the popular film franchise, sources say.
An offshoot, which is further along in the development process, is being written by Gossip Girl developers/executive producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. The duo are producing the project, the premise of which is being kept under wraps, through their Fake Empire banner, along with Witherspoon (pictured) and Lauren Neustadter through Hello Sunshine and Legally Blonde film franchise producer Marc Platt. Hello Sunshine, a part of Candle Media, Fake Empire and Amazon MGM Studios are producing.
Sources report that Hello Sunshine and Amazon are looking to further expand the Legally Blonde TV universe with a possible second spin-off series, which is still in the preliminary stages.
As reported a year ago, Legally Blonde was among a dozen titles from MGM's library initially identified for film and/or TV development following Amazon's acquisition of the Hollywood studio. The collaboration with Witherspoon was a natural step in the exploitation of the IP.
The first film in the Legally Blonde film series, written by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith based on the book by Amanda Brown, was released in 2001. Starring Witherspoon as Harvard law student Elle Woods, it became a pop culture phenomenon and propelled Witherspoon to superstardom.
Sequel Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde followed in 2003, as did the 2009 direct-to-video spin-off Legally Blondes, which was originally intended as a pilot for a potential series. Legally Blonde 3, co-written by Mindy Kaling and Dan Goor, has been in the works for several years.
Recent series from Savage and Schwartz include Nancy Drew (2019), which aired for four seasons on The CW, Apple TV+'s City on Fire, the Gossip Girl (2021) reboot on HBO Max and The CW's Dynasty (2017).
At Amazon MGM Studios, Hello Sunshine recently produced the critically acclaimed Prime Video limited series Daisy Jones & The Six.