The long-awaited Legally Blonde 3 gets a new release date in May 2022. In 2001, Reese Witherspoon stepped in the role of Elle Woods and cemented her as a pop culture icon. Legally Blonde follows the perky, fashion-crazed Elle as she prepares herself for a marriage proposal from her boyfriend - only to be dumped instead. Determined to get him back, Elle enrolls in Harvard Law School with the goal of impressing him, but along the way, she discovers her own self-worth and true passions in life. Over the years, Legally Blonde has remained one of the most beloved chick flicks, and it even led to a sequel, a direct-to-DVD spin-off, and a stage musical.
In 2018, reports surfaced that Witherspoon would be returning for Legally Blonde 3. Plot details were slim, but the original Legally Blonde writers Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith and Karen McCullah were set to return, and the film was given a 2020 release. However, there were few developments beyond that, casting doubt on whether it would even happen. Then, Legally Blonde 3 got a major boost earlier this year when Mindy Kaling and Dan Goor signed on to write the script. Now, Legally Blonde 3 has made another important step forward.
Tuesday night, the same night a Legally Blonde 20-year reunion went live, MGM Studios revealed Legally Blonde 3 is officially slated for release in May 2022. Exactly when it will arrive in that month remains to be seen, but if it follows its onetime 2020 date, it will be earlier in the month (it had been scheduled for May 8). The studio shared the news with a GIF of Elle, and the tagging of Witherspoon confirms she'll be returning.
Hollywood has a tendency to revive beloved properties even if it's been years since the last installment, and Legally Blonde is just the latest example of this trend. By the time Legally Blonde 3 comes out, it will have been 21 years since Witherspoon first strode through Harvard's doors. This isn't the largest gap to ever come between movies (the most recent franchise revival, Bill & Ted Face the Music, came a whopping 29 years later), and it could even be that the longer time apart will make audiences more excited about Legally Blonde 3.
Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde saw Elle head to Washington DC to take her law career even further, and fans are surely curious to see what she's been up to since then. Legally Blonde 3 can fill in those blanks and bring an early 2000s franchise into the present day. Hopefully the threequel will manage to fit in some familiar faces, like Jennifer Coolidge's Paulette and Luke Wilson's Emmett, particularly since he and Elle got married at the end of Red, White & Blonde. Now that it has a new date, Legally Blonde 3 can make some real progress going forward.
Source: MGM Studios/Twitter