Scooby-Doo is still one of the most iconic animated franchises in the history of animation. This classic hit got its start in 1969 thanks to Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, who created Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! for Hanna-Barbera Productions. The show introduced a team of youngsters made up of Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Shaggy Rogers along with their Great Dane dog named Scooby-Doo. The team specialized in solving mysteries involving alleged supernatural creatures, yet they always ended up finding out that, hidden behind the monsters, ordinary people were the real villains of the story.
The enormous impact of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! led to further series, spin-offs, reboots, movies, video games, and comics, among many other media. In fact, earlier this year, it was even possible to rent the iconic Mystery Machine for a night on Airbnb. Among the large number of Scooby-Doo movies, there are two that stood out for being live-action productions featuring some great actors: Scooby-Doo: The Movie and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. Both of them were directed by Raja Gosnell, written by James Gunn, and starred Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, and Linda Cardellini. The first, released in 2002, brought the actors together for the first time on-screen as Mystery Incorporated, a group that reunites after two years to investigate a mystery on Spooky Island, a popular and terrifying tropical resort. By 2004, the actors reprised their roles, this time hunting down an anonymous masked figure who is terrorizing the citizens of Coolsville, aided by some of the most horrific villains captured by Mystery Incorporated.
18 years have passed since Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed hit the big screen, and much has been said over the years about a Scooby-Doo 3 featuring the same cast. However, the movie is not going to happen — it has been canceled. This article will go over the known facts about the film and the reasons behind its cancellation.
What Was Planned for Scooby-Doo 3?
Warner Bros.
The movie that would wrap up the Scooby-Doo live-action trilogy would not only be written by James Gunn, but also directed by him, something that had him truly excited. And even though this film never made it to the silver screen, it kept both Scooby-Doo fans and Gunn himself thrilled for years. The filmmaker actually spent some time thinking about the film’s storyline. Such plot was revealed in 2020, via Flickering Myth, when a Twitter user asked Gunn what Scooby-Doo 3 was going to be about. The writer and director’s answer was straightforward: “The Mystery Inc. gang are hired by a town in Scotland who complain they are being plagued by monsters but we discover throughout the film the monsters are actually the victims. Scooby and Shaggy have to come to terms with their own prejudices and narrow belief systems”. Naturally, this revelation left fans puzzled and lamenting the cancellation of the project.
Why Was Scooby-Doo 3 Canceled?
When Scooby-Doo: The Movie was released in 2002, it quickly became a box office success, being the 15th most successful film worldwide of 2002, with a total gross of $275.7 million. Yet, movie critics were quite harsh on this production, slamming almost every aspect of it, from its plot to its jokes and script. Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, the 2004 film, faced even harsher criticism, plus an additional downside: it earned $181 million worldwide, significantly less than the first installment. Ultimately, the reception of this sequel was responsible for the cancellation of Scooby-Doo 3.
Is There Still Hope for Another Scooby-Doo Movie?
Despite the release of other live-action films in the Scooby-Doo franchise over the years, such as Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins and Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster, Prinze Jr., Gellar, Lillard, and Cardellini never reprised their roles on the silver screen, saddening many fans who had hoped to see them again. However, that hope was rekindled again this year, as Lillard commented in an interview with Too Fab that he would love working on an R-rated Scooby-Doo film with his former castmates. Considering how important the opinion of fans on social networks is nowadays, he was sure that it could happen. Prinze Jr. reacted to these comments by tweeting that he didn’t think Warner Bros. would dare to release such a movie. Gunn, on the other hand, said that he thought it was possible, but he didn’t have the time to work on it at the moment. It’s only a matter of time to see whether or not Scooby-Doo 3 actually comes to fruition.
