Lauren Neustadter tends to keep pretty busy. But even by her standards, summer 2026 was aggressive. In July alone, the president of film and TV at Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine launched Legally Blonde prequel Elle on Prime Video, premiered Lucky on Apple TV and wrapped production on what we now know to be the final season of The Morning Show.
“I feel like Reese and I just ran several marathons at the same time,” says Neustadter. “It’s been a really epic summer, and I feel very grateful for it, but it’s also nice to go back into the office and be back in a normal rhythm. It’s been a minute.”
During a recent episode of The Hollywood Reporter podcast, I’m Having an Episode (Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple), Neustadter spoke about the summer’s genre pivots for the company, the decision to end The Morning Show, Chihuahua casting and what incoming showrunner Francesca Sloane is bringing to the forthcoming third season of Big Little Lies.
The Morning Show was announced in November 2017 and had been in the works for some time before that. It premiered in 2019 as one of the starriest and most scrutinized shows in history. It’s also rather expensive. All that’s to say… this is a very big plane to land. How did you all approach the decision to end with this coming fifth season?
When we went into it, I think we all thought it would be three seasons. So, we were excited to make the fourth and the fifth. I think there’s just something to be said for finishing strong. This feels like an important moment to be making a show about journalists and talking about the things that we’ve always been talking about and really bring it all together now. And it’s not over. (Laughs) We’re knee-deep in post-production.
The world in which you pitched this show is so not the world we live in now — culturally or within the industry.
Me Too came after we sold The Morning Show. When we saw everything that was happening in the world, we said, wait a minute, you know, this is this has to be part of it. Our teenage son recently asked if he could watch the show. Our response was, “Are you ready to not love Steve Carell?”
How was the wrap party?
Really fun. We went to the Hollywood Roosevelt. It was hundreds of people. This was eight years, five seasons — all of them shot in L.A. We just know each other so well. And we’ve been really lucky to bring so many people from The Morning Show onto our other shows, between seasons. Everybody relaxed and let loose.
Lexi Minetree in Elle.
Jessica Brooks/Prime Video
The mandate at Hello Sunshine has always been firmly rooted in telling women’s stories. I imagine everybody gets that now, but was there ever a moment in the early days where someone would come in with their version of Jack Reacher that they wanted to sell you on?
Oh, of course. There was a lot of, “OK, so I know that you guys are centering these stories on women, but this movie has a great role for a woman.” No, no. The woman has to be at the center of the story. The whole point is that she has to drive the narrative. I’m not interested in the well-written wife character. It’s gotta be her story. It was actually very liberating to get to say, “That sounds really great, but it’s just not exactly right for us,” and to confidently move in this direction. And people were excited by the prospect of what we were doing. So many writers wanted to come in and have these conversations. And, by the way, not just women. There were men that wanted to come in and have conversations about telling great stories that centered on women. We’ve done so many things that are so different, but the thing that they all have in common is that elevator pitch. Everything has a woman at the center. And, in an unexpected way, we wanna showcase her as the hero.
The first season of Elle, the Legally Blonde prequel, premiered this summer. How many actresses did you see for the role of, essentially, young Reese?
It was very important to Reese that we do an open call. She said the Elle Woods thing to do is give everybody a shot. I think it was close to 5,000 tapes. [Casting director] David Rubin and his team watched every single one of them. They flagged their favorites. Lexi [Minetree] was a total standout. Her mom filmed it in their backyard. It showed us that she got it and that she loved this character, respected her and would take good care of her. I think she paid great attention to detail while making sure that she wasn’t imitating Reese. But she found very specific moments where she could do a little mannerism that Reese did in the movie.
And how many dogs did you see for the role of Bruiser?
Fewer dogs. Honestly, the criteria was sort of intense because Bruiser had to be a little puppy. There weren’t many. We were given maybe five that we were shown? But Bruiser, we knew this was the one. Also, it’s Bruiser and Cruiser. They’re brothers. Bruiser’s the main event, but if he’s having a moment, Cruiser will step in. It’s very Mary Kate and Ashley, the Chihuahua version. I was watching a cut of one of our episodes from season two yesterday, and Bruiser just brings it home every time. What an amazing dog.
Lucky has been airing in weekly drops most of this summer. I’d argue it’s a pretty big genre departure for you, in terms of genre. How was the experience of working overnights in Vegas on an action shoot?
I loved every minute of it. We loved the book, and we saw the potential to put her in a really full-throttle, high-stakes world. We did have a week in Vegas for the pilot, 11 p.m. to 11 a.m. at Caesars Palace. We actually started there, which was crazy, because you’re suddenly nocturnal while you’re getting to know everyone. Every episode feels distinct and different. So it was also just an amazing opportunity to learn and to experience new things. We always talk about is staying curious and making sure that we’re always asking questions and trying to learn new things. I think Lucky was a great example of us finding people who were amazing in this lane and then getting to go on this ride with them, but also really learn from them. And I have as many men saying to me that they’re loving it as women. It’s nice to make something that’s for everybody.
Anya Taylor Joy in Lucky
Courtesy of Apple TV
But don’t you get that with The Morning Show, too?
We do, for sure. But I think there’s something about Lucky. I guess that maybe we’re hearing it even more because it’s the first season and feels like a departure for us. People are reaching out in a different way.
I know you can’t really talk about the third season of Big Little Lies, so let’s talk about the new showrunner — Francesca Sloane. What is she bringing to the show?
Incredible voice and specificity. For those that don’t know that Big Little Truths is publishing in September, that’s a book that I would recommend. When you read the novel, you will feel so happy, if you’re a fan of the show, to be in the world of these characters again. I feel like I won the lottery because I get to read the scripts and see what Francesca and the team are doing to bring the story from this novel to life on screen. There’s a lot going on with the teenagers, too. I think Francesca and all of the writers are doing an incredible job of adapting the book and bringing so much specificity to every single character.
