New Scooby-Doo Reboot Could Be An R-Rated Adventure

A Scooby-Doo movie rated R? Ruh roh.

Makers of the two Scooby-Doo flicks from the aughts are publicly speaking about a potential third film, The Brad Media reports. If it happens, the target audience could apparently be adults — not children, to whom the first two, PG-rated flicks catered.

James Gunn, who wrote the first two Scooby-Doo movies, “unmasked” the possibility of an R-rated sequel Monday on Twitter. Freddy Prinze Jr., star of the first two Scooby-Doo projects, also chimed in on the discussion.

The exchange kicked off with a tweet from TooFab reporter Brian Particelli.

“Okay, @MatthewLillard @JamesGunn @SarahMGellar @RealFPJr @lindacardellini

 … what do we have to do to make this happen? Do we start with a hashtag?”

Prinze Jr. replied: “Rightly or wrongly, they don’t have the guts to make that movie.”

Then, Gunn — director of Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad — chimed in with his own thoughts.

“I think they’d do it if we asked,” he tweeted. “I just don’t think I have the time right now!”

I think they’d do it if we asked. I just don’t think I have the time right now!

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) July 25, 2022

Does ‘Scooby-Doo’ Lack Big-Screen Appeal?

As Prinze suggests, it’s hard to believe an adult-oriented Scooby-Doo flick will come to fruition. In addition to carrying a PG rating, each of the first two movies attracted very low approval ratings. The first one, simply titled Scooby-Doo and released in June 2002, holds a 32 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Its successor, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, fared even worse with a 22 percent rating.

While Gunn was poised to both write and direct a third installment, Warner Bros. canceled it due to Scooby-Doo 2’s poor box-office performance, according to ComicBook.com. The director later revealed his proposed plot for the canned film on Twitter in April 2020.

“The Mystery Ink gang are hired by a town in Scotland who complain they’re being plagued by monsters,” Gunn tweeted. “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!)”

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!)

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) April 1, 2020

It’s unclear whether the plot Gunn described would be the same one he would use for a third Scooby-Doo movie.