Scooby-Dooby-Dod (fans), where are you? We got some news for you now. After the first piece of Netflix’s live-action Scooby-Doo series’ Mystery Inc. puzzle fell into place last month, with franchise queen McKenna Grace joining as a young Daphne Blake, it was only a matter of time before we found out who else would be joining her aboard the Mystery Machine. And now, per Deadline‘s reporting, we do indeed know who’ll be playing Shaggy, Fred, and Velma in Scott Rosenberg and Josh Appelbaum’s origin series.
As the trade shares, The Pitt‘s Tanner Hagen will play lovable stoner Shaggy Rogers in the show, with Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret breakout Abby Ryder Fortson set to star alongside as booksmart Velma Dinkley and Maxwell Jenkins (Lost In Space, Sense8) attached to don Fred Jones’ iconic orange neckerchief. Plot specifics of Rosenberg and Appelbaum’s Mystery Inc. origin story are largely being kept under wraps for now, but we do have a broad official synopsis, which reads: “During their 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.”
With Stranger Things‘ emotional final season having already been and gone, Chloé Zhao’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer revival cancelled at Hulu just this past weekend, and Tim Burton’s Wednesday already three seasons deep now into its run and unlikely to go far beyond that, there’s a real gap in the market just now for a supernatural coming-of-age series that could grow and grow and grow. Could a live-action Scooby-Doo series be just what the streaming doctor ordered? With it having been over two decades now since the Mystery Inc. crew’s last major non-animated outing (2002’s Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed), the jury’s still out. But with this casting, this franchise, and so much material to draw on and riff off, we’re ready to get a clue and lock in. Watch this space!
