Comedian Mindy Kaling has recently revealed that watching HBO Max’sAnd Just Like Thatmajorly impacted and inspired her approach for the highly-anticipatedLegally Blonde 3. With many aspects of the original film being rebooted over the years, the famous Elle Woods was always destined to make a comeback.
Legally Blonde 3has officially been in development since 2018 when the previous star, Reese Witherspoon, teased the possibility of her reprising her beloved role as Elle to fans. In the beginning, MGM was quick to set the film for a 2020 release date, butLegally Blonde 3has still yet to come to fruition. However, during the year of its supposed release date, the film’s cast and crew did see a major shift in terms of new creative energies coming on board, most notably Mindy Kaling and Dan Goor signing on as co-writers for the script. The movie all of a sudden saw progressive movement forward and announced for fans toexpectLegally Blonde 3to premierein May of this year. Sadly, this sudden new release date seems to be a pipe dream for now. The film has yet to even begin production properly at this point, therefore a May release date is extremely unlikely and unrealistic. Although there is clearly major hype and excitement surrounding the possibility of aLegally Blonde 3, the script still remains unfinished.
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Last December, Witherspoon did confirm that Kaling and Goor were in the process of still piecing together the screenplay. She also shared that Kaling and she often speak regarding the progress of the script for the film. Now, Kaling has given fans a little update onLegally Blonde 3and revealed the challenges she faced while trying to navigate a much older version of Elle (in her 40s) who is taking on a completely new type of world. During Kaling’s recent interview withTIME, she also revealed that the recent reboot of another similar, female-driven story led to even more delays towards her finally completing the script forLegally Blonde 3. She admitted she has been a long-time fan and admirer ofSex and the City, therefore she was super excited for theHBO Max rebootseriesAnd Just Like Thatto drop.
Yet, Kaling explained that she found it difficult to even get past the first two episodes, due to how much the show reflected the many struggles and roadblocks she was facing with creatingLegally Blonde 3. “I found it too uncomfortable to watch. I felt like I could commiserate with the producers and the writers of the show, trying to address all these issues from the past, and be funny and fabulous, but also sort of apologize for itself,” she said. “The hardest thing about this project is trying to figure that out in an authentic way. Honestly, watchingAnd Just Like That, and how they took a character from 18 years ago, and how the character is now—we want to make sure that Elle Woods is not paying penance for existing in the year 2022.”
And Just Like Thathas received some controversy for the more forced nature with which they approach tacklingmatters of race and LGBTQ+ rightsthat were completely ignored and neglected in the original series. It makes sense that Kaling would want to take her time withLegally Blonde 3. Not only due to the fact that Elle Woods is regarded as a heroine to many, but she also doesn’t want to mishandle or breeze over notions of diversity and representation.
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