It’s not often that I remark on a casting announcement, much less one about “Scooby-Doo,” but the second I opened an e-mail from Netflix, my jaw dropped.
A chocolate brown Great Dane puppy with blue eyes and a teal collar sitting on a tile floor gazed at me from my computer screen — I squealed. I mean, look at him. His floppy ears, grumpy little face and paws you just want to shake hands with. He’s perfect.
Scooby-Doo: Origins is the streamer’s upcoming live-action series, slated for release in 2027, featuring this mystery-solving pup. It marks the first time a real dog has played Scooby-Doo.
For many viewers, their first exposure to Scooby and his gang was via the 1970s Hanna-Barbera animated version, which aired on Cartoon Network in reruns in the 1990s and early aughts, or the reboots on ABC and the WB, now the CW, more recently.
Several live-action theatrical and TV films have been made over the years, but they’ve always featured a computer-generated dog. Yes, that means it took nearly six decades to have a real-life Scooby.
The previously announced cast includes key players in the Scooby gang: Mckenna Grace as Daphne Blake, Tanner Hagen as Shaggy Rogers, Abby Ryder Fortson as Velma Dinkley and Maxwell Jenkins as Fred Jones.
Paul Walter Hauser is also slated to appear as a series regular in an unnamed role. Showrunners Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg helm the series.
According to the show’s logline, it’s a “modern reimagining of the iconic mystery-solving group of teens and their very special dog” that takes place at summer camp. Said dog may have been witness to a supernatural murder, leading the group of teens to set out to solve the case. It’s an origin story for Scooby and his gang.
While I wouldn’t consider myself a Scooby-Doo superfan, I am a fan of very cute dogs. I’ll have my Scooby snacks ready in case we ever cross paths. – Maira Garcia/Los Angeles Times/TNS
