James Gunn Celebrates 20th Anniversary of Scooby-Doo Movie

06/08/2022 05:25 pm EDT

Happy 20th anniversary, Scooby-Doo! The beloved live-action Scoob movie hit theatres on June 8th, 2002. To this day, many fans consider the film to have one of the best animated-to-live-action casts of all time with '90s teen heartthrob Freddie Prinze Jr. playing Fred, his real-life wife and Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne, Marvel's Linda Cardellini as Velma, and Scream alum Matthew Lillard as Shaggy. While you may not have known it 20 years ago, you're probably aware by now that the 2002 hit film was written by Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad director, James Gunn. In fact, Gunn took to Twitter today to celebrate the movie's birthday.

"#ScoobyDoo was released 20 ago today. Saturday I got a call from the head of Warner Bros at 5:30 am, telling me we were going to have the biggest June opening ever. My life changed in one moment; I'm incredibly grateful for that & everything since," Gunn wrote. He also shared a teaser trailer for a film and a press release from the movie's premiere. You can check out the tweets below:

Many fans are eager for another live-action Scooby-Doo film, preferably one that sees the return of the four original actors. The sequel, Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, was released in 2004, and Gunn was originally supposed to write a third film, but it was scrapped. Now, the director doesn't think it would work considering the life span of a Great Dane. Last month, the director responded to some pleas for another Scooby movie, and the conversation took a dark turn. 

Back in 2020, Gunn revealed the plot for his scrapped third movie. "The Mystery Ink gang are hired by a town in Scotland who complain they're being plagued by monsters but we discover throughout the film the monsters are actually the victims & Scooby & Shaggy have to come to terms with their own prejudices & narrow belief systems. (Yes, Really!)," Gunn shared.

While there are no current plans to bring back the live-action gang, some exciting new Scooby content did drop last month. Mindy Kaling revealed the first look at her new adult animated re-imagining of Scooby-Doo, Velma. The first look at Velma came with the Warner Bros. TV upfronts, and Kaling is going with a much more adult version of the character. The photo image shows Velma discovering a women's corpse with the skull lopped off and brain removed. The release date for Velma has not been revealed, but the show will debut on HBO Max. 

If you want to celebrate Scooby-Doo's anniversary, the movie is streaming on HBO Max.

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