Is Legally Blonde 3 actually coming to theatres this May?

Elle Woods may be making her return to the big screen, complete with freshly manicured nails, multiple pink outfits and her trusty law books. But when is the question on everyone's minds.

About four years ago, Entertainment Weekly had learned that a third part of cult classic Legally Blonde was in the works. The writers of the first movie, Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith, had been announced as the official screenwriters. They're the ones who came up with the idea of the pink-obsessed sorority girl determined to marry her boyfriend, Warner (Matthew Davis), only to find out that she deserved better. Her journey to live up to his expectations led her to Harvard Law School where she pursued a law degree. In the second movie, Elle headed to Capitol Hill where she had a hand in getting animal testing outlawed.

The third instalment would mark the first Witherspoon-led film with her production team Hello Sunshine on board. The first part released in 2001 and second in 2003, both starring Witherspoon in the lead as Elle Woods. However, the 2009 spinoff Legally Blondes did not star the 46-year-old actor but twins Rebecca and Camilla Rosso as Isabelle and Annie Woods.

Here's what we know so far about the third film;

The writers

Years ago it was originally reported that McCullah and Smith, writers of the original film — but not the 2003 sequel — would handle the third one, however, that later changed. It was later announced that Never Have I Ever and The Sex Lives of College Girls writer and producer Mindy Kaling and Brooklyn Nine-Nine writer Dan Goor were the official screenwriters for Legally Blonde 3.

Two years ago, Kaling took to Instagram and said, "Finally some use for my Elle Woods fan fiction! So excited to be reunited with my friends [Reese Witherspoon, Lauren Neustadter] and Dan Goor to work on this movie. Elle Woods is so iconic, proving you can be girly and smart at the same time. Bend and snap people!"

The cast

There's no Legally Blonde without the original Elle Woods. According to Entertainment Weekly, Witherspoon is on board to star and produce the film but no other official cast announcements have been made. However, when the announcement was made in 2018, Regina King and Davis had shown interest in reprising their characters, Grace and Warner.

"I would love to see where the writers think Warner is at this point," Davis had said. "I would love to see something where perhaps Warner is married to a politician, to a woman who's running for office, and he's sort of like a kept man. And her opponent is another candidate, and the person running the campaign is Elle Woods. So it's Elle Woods driving this campaign against the wife of Warner."

As for King, she had said, "I freakin' love Reese and if she asked me to come back, even if it was just for a scene, I would."

The release date

Is the movie even releasing next month or even this year? Originally it was scheduled to hit theatres on Valentine's Day 2020.

But then came Covid, pushing back the release of all films. Later in 2020, it was announced that the movie would hit the big screen on May 3, 2022.

Yet, even after the official tweet and announcement, we still don't have a confirmation.

Last month Kaling told Time that her and Goor don't want to be responsible for ruining what's basically "Reese's Avengers franchise" and teased questions such as Elle's age, if she's happy as a lawyers and if she has achieved all that she ever wanted.

With May 3 just around the corner, we guess we'll have to wait and see.