The Third Live-Action ‘Scooby-Doo’ Movie We Never Got

The second sequel was going to be in Scotland, according to James Gunn. The 2002 Scooby-Doo movie was a huge success at the box office, raking in around $275 million, and is fondly remembered by the franchise’s fans. After such a successful opening, it made perfect sense to follow up with a sequel, and in 2004, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed was released. The sequel did still profit, but sales were around $100 million less than the first film. This drop in takings, combined with an overall negative opinion of the film from critics led to a planned third film being canceled. So, what went wrong, and what might we have seen from our favorite mystery-solving gang in their third outing?

The two Mystery Incorporated films in the live-action duology we did get were both packed full of fun, with all the usual antics we’d expect from the franchise, with particularly hilarious performances from Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, and Rowan Atkinson’s oddball comedy brought an added dimension to the first film as he starred as Emile Mondavarious. Whilst the third installment would have surely brought a lot more of this same energy, director James Gunn has explained how it might have been a little deeper than its predecessors. In a tweet from 2020, Gunn revealed his plan for the canceled film.