Mindy Kaling Finally Gave an Update on 'Legally Blonde 3'

For anyone holding their breath for news on Legally Blonde's upcoming third installment, Mindy Kaling finally has an update. However, it's not good news, especially with the ongoing writer's strike and Reese Witherspoon's packed schedule. During an appearance on Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi, an iHeartPodcast presented by iHeartPodcasts and Air Mail, Kaling explained that there have been multiple iterations of the script for a while now, and because Reese is so booked and busy, it'll take nothing short of perfection to get her to step into Elle Woods's heels one more time.

"Obviously, now we sort of have pencils down because of the writer strike, but it's had a couple of iterations over the past couple of years. And I think it's a challenging project because of what makes it so great," Kaling explained. "Elle Woods is like Reese [Witherspoon’s] Avengers character and people feel so passionately about this. I'm just someone who's coming in to co-write the third movie and even I see how excited people are."

She went on to say that part of the challenge of bringing Woods back to the big screen is realizing that times have changed since she first made her way into everyone's hearts — and that's something Kaling welcomes as a writer. Especially now that movies like Barbie have proven that audiences really want to see stories about women by women, Kaling says the time is right to give people something special.

"What is Elle Woods doing in 2023 or 2024, when culture has changed so much since then? And so that's tricky as a writer — writing something that is incredibly funny and is a great role for Reese, but is saying something about feminism now," she added.

Kaling went on to say that Witherspoon's packed schedule (with The Morning Show and other projects) puts her in a unique place to keep waiting on Legally Blonde 3 and not put the film into production until every detail is perfect.

"[Reese is] shooting shows and movies and everything else, so there isn't this sense from her that she's in any desperation or anxiety about getting back into the role. She loves the character and wants to do it if it's exactly right," Kaling explaiend. "So, it's been taking some time"

Elsewhere in the interview, Kaling shared that her mother's death (in 2012) was one of the reasons she decided to start a family. Kaling has two children, Katherine and Spencer, and has famously kept their father's identity a secret.

“I feel blessed because equal to my desire to find a man, I wanted to have children. And that intensified when my mother died. I didn’t want to be on my deathbed and not have anybody around my bed. I want there to be kids and I want there to be grandkids," she said. "The thing that was the most important thing to me was this relationship to these phantom children that I didn’t have. I pictured I would live in New York City and they would come visit me and we’d walk to see plays together and we would have lunch at the Polo Lounge for dinner. They would hang out with me in my 60s and 70s.”