Summary

The Scooby-Doo franchise is heading to Netflix with a new live-action series, aiming to redeem the brand’s recent missteps in Max’s
Velma
series.
Despite decades of success, Scooby has never had his own live-action series until now, produced by Greg Berlanti for Warner Bros. Television.
This re-imagined live-action drama has the potential to recapture fans’ love, with the success hinging on strong character casting and production execution.

The Scooby-Doo franchise is returning to live-action, with a new series based on the mystery-solving canine and his gang of friends heading to Netflix. Although Scooby-Doo is one of the longest-running IPs in animated history, the latest incarnation in Max series Velma has not exactly been endearing itself to long-term fans of the Mystery Inc. team, but this new series could perhaps be about to right many wrongs.

Scooby-Doo made his first appearance in 1969’s Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, going on to appear in many more TV shows, movies, cross-overs, and live-action movies. For 20 years, the easily-spooked canine had been given a new series almost every year, and after a lengthy hiatus – bridged by reruns – more series began in 2002 with What’s New, Scooby-Doo? Add in dozens of feature-length movies, with several live-action movies including two starring Matthew Lillard and Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Scooby-Doo has delivered quite a catalogue for fans to indulge in.

However, the one thing he has not had is his own full live-action series. That will change with Scooby-Doo: The Live-Action Series, which will be produced by Arrowverse creator Greg Berlanti under his Betlanti Productions banner for Warner Bros. Television. According to Deadline, the series will be written by Cowboy Bebop’s Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg.

The new series is being pitched as a “re-imagined live-action drama,” which does not give much away about the look or feel of the project, but after many years of fans calling for more live action Scooby-Doo projects, they are about to get exactly what they wanted. Hopefully, the project will live up to the high expectations that come with it.

Scooby-Doo’s Live Action Series Can Exorcise the Problematic Velma

Earlier this month, Max dropped the second season of its Mindy Kaling-created series Velma, an adult animated comedy based in the Scooby-Doo world but without Scooby-Doo himself. Instead, the show focused on nerdy sleuth Velma, but its very different take on the franchise did not go down well with fans. After being slammed in its first season, Season 2 managed to gain slightly better reviews, but only through there being fewer reviews overall.

Netflix’s new live-action take on the franchise now has the chance to redeem the franchise and give fans a series that they can get on board with. A big part of its potential success is not only going to rest on the execution of the series, but in the casting of the characters. In recent years, the original cast of the James Gunn-written Scooby-Doo movie from 2002 have made it clear that they would not want to return to the franchise in a new movie, even though Matthew Lillard has provided the voice of Shaggy in almost every animated movie released in the last 20 years.

Related 10 Hilarious Scooby-Doo Crossovers That Shocked Us Scooby-Doo had some of the most surprising pop-culture crossovers, even as far back as the 1970s.

That means there will be a whole new cast taking on the iconic roles, with Scooby-Doo once again expected to be rendered as a CGI character. There has been no indication of when the show is expected to begin production, so casting is still probably a little while away. However, that will give fans plenty of time to compile a list of their ideal candidates to be the latest to step into the roles of Shaggy, Fred, Velma, Daphne, and, of course, the voice of one Scoobert Doo. In the case of the latter, many will be hoping that the icon that is Frank Welker will return to the role once again after his last outing in 2023’s Scooby-Doo! and Krypto, Too!