Since Scooby-Doo Where Are You? premiered on CBS in 1969, the animated series about a group of mystery solving teens and their cowardly talking Great Dane, the titular Scooby, has been a permanent part of American popular culture.
Spin-offs followed, including: 1972’s The New Scooby-Doo Movies which were one-hour episodes featuring celebrity guests like Adam West as Batman and The Three Stooges; the 1988 prequel series A Pup Named Scooby-Doo; and the 2010 reboot Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.
The Scooby gang has also starred in a series of live action films, starting with 2002’s Scooby-Doo, which was written by Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn and featured pitch-perfect performances from real-life couple Freddy Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar as Fred and Daphne, respectively, as well as Matthew Lillard who embodied the role of beatnik Norville “Shaggy” Rogers.
With the Scooby-Doo film now 20 years old, it may be time to reboot the live action Scooby-Doo film franchise, which ended in 2018 with the direct-to-video Daphne & Velma. The question remains: which modern day thespians have the chops to portray such venerated American pop culture characters? Who in all of Hollywood could turn in a performance so fine it helps the American movie-going public to forget the work of Freddy Prinze Jr.?
Here are some suggestions.
Liam Hemsworth as Fred Jones
To portray the blond leader of the gang, and possibly the only member of the Scooby Gang to have a driver’s license as he’s the only one who ever drives The Mystery Machine van, requires an actor who can embody Fred’s alpha command energy while also remembering to include his air of vapid cluelessness.
In this case, Liam Hemsworth is the only one clear logical choice. The brother of Thor actor Chris Hemsworth, Liam is best known for his role as Gale Hawthorne in the Hunger Games film franchise. He is as handsome and charismatic and deft at both comedic and dramatic turns as his brother, with the added bonus of being much much cheaper.
Zendaya as Daphne Blake
To play the redhead crimesolver requires a young actress with the range to play a character who is both an uptight preppy and also loose enough to spend hours in a tiny van with a big smelly dog and an unshaven beatnik. There is, of course, one young actress who has the ability to embody a multifaceted character like that, and she is Zendaya.
As her turn as MJ in the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies proved, Zendaya has the weight to help carry a franchise while stepping into the role of an iconic redhead who has been portrayed in a live-action medium. It may even prove to be a more fun experience, as unlike the Spider-Man franchise, there are far less Scooby-Doo fans that will take to the Internet to rage impotently about what her character is supposed to “really” look like.
Selena Gomez as Velma Dinkley
As the token “nerd” of the group, Velma’s character in the original animated series was defined by her tendency to lose her glasses at the worst time and her ability to remember things she read in books. While recent portrayals have expanded her character to reveal facets like her romantic interests, Velma remains a bit of a cipher with a tendency to lean into her “nerd” side.
That’s why it’s time to pivot, and take the character in a slightly different direction by casting Selena Gomez. The one-time girlfriend of Justin Bieber has been gaining raves recently for her work in the comedy series Only Murders in the Building, and if she can hold her own with comedy masters like Steve Martin and Martin Short, she’s likely to avoid getting upstaged by a cartoon dog.
Awkwafina as Norville “Shaggy” Rogers
A key role in the Scooby mythology lies in the character of Shaggy, a lazy, cowardly beatnik, whose best friend is a dog and who will eat pretty much anything, from giant hero sandwiches to Scooby Snack-brand dog treats. It’s also pretty much implied, although of course never explicitly stated, that Shaggy lives in a state of mind that is, shall we say, clouded with a chance of munchies.
That’s why we think the comic relief stoner role should go to Awkwafina. While admittedly flipping the role of tall white male goofball to short Asian female goofball may seem a little extreme, anybody who watched the former Nora Lum in Marvel’s Shang-Chi or her own show Nora From Queens can tell you that nobody currently working could better embody the Shaggy ethos. You could even shorten Shaggy’s first name from Norville to Nora without causing any major shifts.
Kate McKinnon as Scooby-Doo
Playing the voice of the cowardly Great Dane with a rudimentary command of English may not seem like a plum role at first, even if he is the heart of the franchise. But remember that Vin Diesel brings a tremendous amount of dimension and character to Guardians of the Galaxy’s Groot with an even more limited vocabulary, and he’s getting his own Disney Plus show.
That’s why you need a comedic character actor who brings a lot of energy and range. Thus, we believe the best actor for the job is Kate McKinnon. After all, if we’re going to gender-swap Shaggy, we might as well do the same for her best friend. McKinnon brings comedic chops, star power, and an ability to take a character to its logical comic extreme… and then take it even further. If you need somebody to assay something as crazy as a mystery solving dog, you might as well cast someone who can get crazy onscreen.
Tommy Lee Jones as The Bad Guy
Every classic Scooby Doo story has a cranky old man who pretends to be a ghost pirate or a Bigfoot or something, and who turns out to be just Old Man Jenkins who would have gotten away with it if it “wasn’t for those meddling kids!”
We can’t think of anyone better to play a crazy old man than Tommy Lee Jones. Having established himself as Hollywood’s cranky old man in movies like The Fugitive and Men in Black, Jones would be perfect to play a crazy old farmer who projects images of spooks in an effort to scare away people who want to buy his land.