Every new Reese Witherspoon credit to premiere in 2026 has carried a producer title instead of a character name. She turned 50 on March 22, and the year that was supposed to be about the milestone turned into a showcase for Hello Sunshine, the company whose logo has been on screen far more often this year than her face.
That balance flips in 2027. The upcoming Reese Witherspoon movies and TV shows put her back in front of the camera for a farewell, a long-delayed reunion and, if she gets her way, a third trip to Harvard Law. Here is where each one stands as of late <a href="https://comicvibe.com/things-to-do-in-detroit-this-weekend-october-30/” title=”Things To Do in Detroit This Weekend: October 30″>October, and which ones I would actually bet on.
Elle Is the Bet Amazon Already Doubled Down On
Elle dropped all eight episodes on Prime Video on July 1. Lexi Minetree plays a teenage Elle Woods whose family moves from Los Angeles to rainy 1990s Seattle, and the series comes from creator Laura Kittrell, who runs it with Caroline Dries. Jason Moore, who directed Pitch Perfect, handled the first two episodes, and Witherspoon executive produces alongside original Legally Blonde producer Marc Platt.
Reviews were mixed, with critics generally crediting Minetree for the sparkle while calling the story around her a rehash. That tracks with the core problem of any Elle Woods prequel. The joy of the 2001 film is watching her walk into rooms where nobody takes her seriously and win anyway, and a high school version has to manufacture that underestimation from scratch.
None of that slowed Amazon down. The studio ordered a second season in January, months before anyone saw the first, a move we flagged when Prime Video made the early renewal official. Season 2 filmed in Vancouver from March 4 to June 19 and adds Never Have I Ever star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as a rival. No premiere date is set, but with production wrapped, a 2027 return looks likely.
The Morning Show Ends With Season 5
Apple confirmed on July 23 that The Morning Show will end with its fifth season, posting that the final run is “coming in 2027.” Filming wrapped in early August, and Jennifer Aniston marked it in a social post that read, “That might be a wrap but it’s never goodbye.”
Witherspoon returns as Bradley Jackson opposite Aniston’s Alex Levy, with Billy Crudup, Mark Duplass, Karen Pittman, Nestor Carbonell, Nicole Beharie and Jon Hamm expected back. Deadline reported in March that Jeff Daniels joins in a major recurring role as Lukas, a self-made billionaire who founded an investment firm. Casting the man who played Will McAvoy on The Newsroom in a cable-news satire is a wink, and a good one.
Ending it is the right call. This was one of the launch titles when Apple TV+ debuted in November 2019, and the show has always been sharpest when it was angry about one specific thing in the news business. Five seasons gives Bradley and Alex a clean exit before the premise runs out of industry to skewer. Apple has not named a month, but every previous season has premiered in the fall.
Big Little Lies Finally Has a Book Under It
The weakness of Big Little Lies Season 2 in 2019 was structural. Liane Moriarty’s novel ran out after the first season, and the follow-up, Meryl Streep and all, played like a show searching for a reason to exist. Season 3 fixes that at the foundation. Moriarty’s sequel novel, Big Little Truths, came out August 25 and jumps roughly a decade ahead, so the Monterey kids are now teenagers with secrets of their own.
The HBO show is in development, with Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-creator Francesca Sloane writing the first episode and executive producing with David E. Kelley, Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman. HBO has not announced a production start, a premiere date or the full returning cast.
Of all the upcoming Reese Witherspoon movies and TV shows, this is the one with the best raw material and the vaguest calendar. A book is a better guarantee than a renewal, though, and Madeline Mackenzie parenting a teenager is a premise that writes itself.
Legally Blonde 3 Is Still Just a Promise
Witherspoon has kept the third movie alive in interviews for years. Asked by Bustle in March whether it could still happen, she answered, “Absolutely. It’s a whole world that we want to build with this character.” She added that women want to rally around the characters they grew up with, which is the exact lane Barbie drove through in 2023.
Among the Reese Witherspoon movies and TV shows fans ask about most, this one has the least paperwork behind it. What has not happened is a date, a director announcement from the studio or a start of production. Deadline first reported Witherspoon was nearing a deal with MGM to return as Elle back in 2018, with original screenwriters Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith writing, and the project has drifted ever since. My read is that Elle is now the franchise’s engine, and a third film becomes far more likely if the prequel’s younger audience shows up for Season 2. Until a studio puts a release date on it, treat every update as a wish list.
Where Her Name Already Landed in 2026
The producer side of the ledger has been busy. Apple TV brought back The Last Thing He Told Me for Season 2 on February 20, with Jennifer Garner back as Hannah Hall five years after the first season’s mystery. On July 15, Apple premiered Lucky, a limited series starring Anya Taylor-Joy, based on Marissa Stapley’s novel and created by Jonathan Tropper, with Witherspoon executive producing through Hello Sunshine. We broke down the official trailer when it arrived in June.
Her most recent on-screen movie remains You’re Cordially Invited, the Prime Video wedding comedy with Will Ferrell that premiered in January 2025. Amazon also ordered All Stars, a cheerleading comedy from The Devil Wears Prada screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna with Witherspoon set to star, back in December 2022, and it still has no premiere date.
Add it up and the Reese Witherspoon movies and TV shows with real momentum are the ones she controls from the producer’s chair. The acting comeback arrives on a schedule Apple set, sometime in 2027, when Bradley Jackson gets one last newscast.
