Reese Witherspoon likens upcoming Legally Blonde 3 to Top Gun: Maverick

Witherspoon will reprise her role as Elle Woods in the new film, which is expected next year

Reese Witherspoon has compared Legally Blonde 3 to the box office smash hit sequel Top Gun: Maverick.

In 2020 – the same night a Legally Blonde 20-year reunion aired – MGM Studios announced that a follow-up would be expected in May 2022. The release date has now been delayed until 2023.

In an interview on USA Today on Monday (1 August), Witherspoon, who will reprise her role as Elle Woods – a sorority-girl-turned-law-student – spoke about the forthcoming sequel.

“I’m still hoping that Legally Blonde is gonna come together in the right way,” the 46-year-old actor said.

“It’s just like Top Gun. They waited a long time to make another version of that movie, and I loved the nostalgia piece they incorporated in it.”

Tom Cruise recently reprised his role of Pete Mitchell in the action sequel, which picked up more than 30 years after the original 1986 Top Gun.

Witherspoon added: “So definitely that gave us a lot of inspiration about what we would want to do with Elle Woods and make sure that we had all those same touchstones that mattered to people [back] then.

“I feel like these characters are my friends, so I safeguard them. I would never make the subpar, mediocre version of their story.”

Reese Witherspoon’s Elle Woods in full post-relationship crisis in ‘Legally Blonde' (MGM)

Legally Blonde 3, which is being written by Mindy Kaling and Brooklyn Nine-Nine creator Dan Goor, will pick up with Woods in her forties.

The first movie followed Witherspoon as a sorority girl who decides to study law at Harvard University in an attempt to get her boyfriend back, despite opposition from the other students.

The film became a sleeper hit for MGM when it grossed $141.8m (£115m) globally in 2001.

A second film – Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde – came in 2003, grossing $124.9m (£105m), with spin-off Legally Blondes released straight to DVD in 2013.

According to IMDB, original cast members Jennifer Coolidge, Alanna Ubach, and Jessica Cauffiel are set to join Witherspoon in the forthcoming sequel.

Legally Blonde 3 is expected to release in cinemas in 2023.