Scooby Doo and the Mystery Inc gang are heading back to the small screen in a live action series for Netflix, here are the details.
Jinkies: Netflix has ordered a live action Scooby Doo television series. No casting details have been confirmed, but we do know (thanks to a Deadline report) that it will be written by Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg – the same Scott Rosenberg who penned Con Air, one of the greatest action films of the 1990s.
This isn’t, of course, the first time Hanna Barbera’s cartoon has been reworked in live-action. Long before James Gunn took creative control of the DC Extended Universe, he was a prolific screenwriter, and arguably his most successful films, at the box office at least, were 2002’s Scooby Doo and 2004’s Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.
The films brought the classic cartoon to life with a pitch perfect cast – Matthew Lillard was so good he voices Shaggy in all Scooby Doo cartoons (well, until recently) – with Freddie Prinze Jr as Fred, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne, Linda Cardellini as Velma and Frank Welker as the voice of Scooby.
Gunn’s script stayed true to the spirit of the series while imbuing it with a mix of childish humour – the flatulence sequence from the first film springs to mind – and light horror. The first film wasn’t too good, the second was much, much better.
Two straight to DVD prequel films – Scooby Doo: The Mystery Begins and Curse Of The Lake Monster followed in 2009 and 2010. Neither made much of an impact, though Hayley Kiyoko in particular gives a great performance as Velma. The last live action film was 2018 prequel Daphne & Velma, which makes no reference to any of the other characters.
Although 2020 film Scoob! was due to be theatrically released before the pandemic, it was released on streaming services. A sequel, Scoob: Holiday Haunt, has been completed but when Warner Bros, as they have with too many films, are not releasing it for financial reasons.
We’ll keep you updated as we hear more on Netflix’s Scooby saga. Let’s hope they take a look at doing The Blair Witch Project crossover again…
