Animated Scooby-Doo Film in the Works

After two pointless live-action feature films and a couple really pointless live-action direct-to-video films, Scooby-Doo will be returning to his roots with an animated, big screen mystery. Warner Bros. reports that Mystery Inc.’s latest adventure is coming to theaters on September 21st, 2018.

This reboot of the timeless Hanna-Barbera franchise will bring back produces Charles Roven and Richard Suckle, who produced the previous Scooby-Doo films. Of course they’ve worked on vastly superior projects since then like the Oscar-nominated American Hustle. They’ll also be joined by producer Allison Abbate, whose other credits include The Iron Giant, The Lego Movie, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Corpse Bride, and Frankenweenie. The Scooby reboot has additionally enlisted Dan Povenmire, the co-creator of Phineas and Ferb, to act as executive-producer

Tony Cervone of Space Jam has also been signed on to direct. This won’t be the first time Cervone’s worked with the cowardly Great Dane, as he’s produced and directed various recent Scooby-Doo animated projects. The screenplay will be penned by Matt Lieberman, who wrote Dr. Dolittle: Tail to the Chief and is currently working on remake of Short Circuit. 

Greg Silverman, WB’s President of Creative Development and Worldwide Production, noted that this new Scooby-Doo movie could lead to more theatrical Hanna-Barbera revivals:

“Like countless fans, I have always loved the Hanna-Barbera cast of characters. As one of their most famous brand ambassadors, Scooby-Doo will take the lead in re-introducing this pantheon of enduringly popular animated stars on a grand scale with an exciting new movie.”

Others studios already have animated reboots of various classic cartoons in the works. The Peanuts Movie is set to hit theaters this November and a fully animated Smurf movie is coming out in 2017. While it’s still unclear if any of these projects will capture the spirit of their original predecessors, it is comforting to see these franchises return to where the belong: in the limitless realm of animation.