Here’s What Needs To Happen For The New Live-Action Scooby-Doo Series To Work

I think it’s fair to say that, at this point, viewers have a bit of “reboot fatigue.” Do we love nostalgia? Obviously. Would it be nice to revisit some of our favorite characters from bygone TV and movies? Yeah, occasionally. But with news of a new reboot or adaptation making headlines seemingly every other day — and many just not living up to the hype — fans are understandably a little skeptical whenever another adaptation of any sort gets announced. This brings us to the latest news: Netflix just revealed that there’s a live-action Scooby-Doo series in the works.

“Scooby-Doo, one of the most recognizable characters of all time, is coming to Netflix as an all-new eight-episode live-action series that will uncover how everyone’s favorite mystery-solving gang and their beloved dog first teamed up to crack the haunting case that started it all,” the streamer teased in a release. And, listen, I love Scooby-Doo. Shaggy kickstarted my attraction to lovable (if not a little laughable) stoners. But the jury’s still out on how I feel about bringing the gang back in this format.

Part of that ambivalence comes from the fact that we just don’t have much information at this point. Like, is this going to be a live-action series geared towards kids? Teens? Or is it for those of us who grew up watching it? According to the logline, it’s a “modern reimagining” that takes place during the teens’ final summer at camp. “Old friends Shaggy and Daphne get embroiled in a haunting mystery surrounding a lonely, lost Great Dane puppy that may have been a witness to a supernatural murder. Together, with the pragmatic and scientific townie Velma and the strange but ever so handsome new kid Freddy, they set out to solve the case that is pulling each of them into a creepy nightmare that threatens to expose all of their secrets.”

So, based on the limited information we have about the series itself and what we’ve learned from existing live-action reboots, here are a few things that would make it more likely this new Scooby-Doo finds success.

The young cast can’t feel recycled.

We need to broaden the scope here, casting directors. Audiences love their favorite stars, but we’re also tired of seeing the same people in everything over and over. Timothée Chalamet is fantastic, but stop, he cannot be Shaggy. Do I envy casting directors this job? No. You need people who feel new but who aren’t so new that people just don’t feel invested. You need stars young enough to be believable as teens but not so young that you miss out on the millennial audience. There should be more diversity, too, whether introduced through the core characters or new characters.

A few ideas...

For Shaggy:

• Fred Hechinger (Gladiator II)
• Cooper van Grootel (One Of Us Is Lying)
• Rudy Pankow (Outer Banks)
• Gavin Casalegno (The Summer I Turned Pretty)
• Caleb McLaughlin (Stranger Things)

For Velma:

• Auli’i Cravalho (Moana)
• Sophia Lillis (I Am Not Okay With This)
• Millicent Simmonds (A Quiet Place)
• Xochitl Gomez (The Baby-Sitters Club)
• Maisy Stella (My Old Ass)

For Daphne:

• Sadie Sink (Stranger Things)
• Hunter Schafer (Euphoria)
• Sabrina Carpenter (Tall Girl)
• Abigail Cowen (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina)
• Natalie Alyn Lind (The Goldbergs)

For Fred:

• Owen Joyner (Julie and the Phantoms)
• Lucky Blue Smith (Uglies)
• Logan Shroyer (This Is Us)
• Peyton Meyer (American Housewife)
• Michael Provost (The Sex Lives of College Girls)

There’s plenty of room in casting secondary characters to bring in even more diversity. For Flim-Flam, Tenzing Norgay Trainor (Boo, Bitch) would be perfect. And Daniella Perkins (Grown-ish), Havana Rose Liu (Bottoms), and Shannon Purser (Riverdale) would be fun as the Hex Girls.

Give the “grownup” cast some OG faves.

Listen, is anyone going to be mad if Mathew Lillard, Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, or Linda Cardellini make a cameo? Nope. Since it’s not likely, it still would be nice to have some teen stars turned Hollywood heavy-hitters from our heyday fill in some of the supporting roles. Riverdale did this really well, casting stars like Skeet Ulrich, Molly Ringwald, and more.

For the love of God, please don’t turn Scooby into a CGI monster.

As much as technology advances every day, the film industry still really seems to struggle with animals onscreen. Wolves always look like the Temu version of Wile E. Coyote. And don’t even get me started on the deer (think The Walking Dead or Ring 2). We need some screen magic for Scooby!

On the plus side, this is in the capable hands of Netflix. They’ve done an excellent job with the effects on Wednesday, and not to be super niche, but have you ever seen the 2023 movie Chupa? That creature was convincingly real... and adorable.

It needs to pick a vibe and stick with it.

The reboots, adaptations, and sequels that toe the line between modern and nostalgic just don’t seem to land. The ones that really lean in one way or the other just don’t feel as forced. Bel-Air is a good example of a series that isn’t trying to be its predecessor — it really did reimagine the characters using a much grittier and more contemporary lens. One thing that really gives me hope? The showrunners/writers/executive producers are Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg, a duo behind one of the most criminally underrated nostalgic series: October Road. If they can bring ~those~ vibes to this series, we’re golden.