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.
"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, April 1, 2020.
Quite the change from the typical storylines we see. In a standard Scooby-Doo plot, we'd see "monsters" terrorize their victims throughout, only for it to be revealed in most cases that it is actually just a human dressed as a monster. You can see why the monsters may be annoyed! This story would have been a great chance for the monsters to tell their sides of the story, clearing their names in the process. It would have made for a very interesting installment in the franchise, as Scooby-Doo has never really delved deeply into thoughts and feelings, at least not to this extent. Shaggy and Scooby having to examine themselves and re-evaluate their opinions could have allowed for a strong story about morals and beliefs to be told, whilst keeping the same outlandish comedy we've grown to love from the franchise. It's a shame we never got to see it, but after the negative reception of Monsters Unleashed, it's understandable why it was canceled.
So what went wrong for Mystery Incorporated? Well, Matthew Lillard seems to think he knows what went wrong and revealed his thoughts back in 2004 during an interview with SyFy. He spoke of how the timing of the release by Warner Bros. was the reason the film didn't make as much as he believed it should have done. He went on to mention how he actually thought this film was "much better than the first movie" and he "honestly thought it was going to do a ridiculously good box office". The timing of the release, back in March 2004, made it difficult for the film to succeed because of the strong competition it had. Competing against huge films such as The Passion of the Christ and Dawn of the Dead was tough enough for the Raja Gosnell movie upon release, and this was before the subsequent releases of films like Hellboy and Kill Bill: Vol 2. These rivals were not the easiest to go up against, so it's easy to see Lillard's point and maybe a different release date would have allowed the feature to flourish at the box office, perhaps reaching the heights of the first.
There may well be some truth in Lillard's comments, but the release of the film can't be the only reason the third was canceled. One of the more notable reasons has to be the reception of the sequel. This wasn't unique to the second film, with the first also receiving largely negative reviews from critics, but it had the box office figures to prove its worth. Reviews across the board were expressive of the lack of creativity of the movie, ultimately contributing to the plug being pulled on another sequel. One particular reviewer, Dave Kehr, made an interesting point in the New York Times. "In the strictly secular-humanist world of Scooby-Doo, there are no real ghosts, but only humans desperate for attention who disguise themselves as supernatural figures." Given the discussion over the planned story for the third installment, this quote is intriguing. James Gunn's comments would lead us to believe that the criticism of the second film would be taken into consideration whilst making the third. Despite this, the second movie wasn't strong enough to warrant a chance to address criticism with a trilogy, so we might never know.
There has been a lot of noise around the live-action films for the past 20 years since the original premiere, and fans remain hopeful for another instalment. Sure, we were given other live-action movies, like Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins (2009) and Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster (2010), but these were sent straight to television and featured all-new casts, failing to garner the same interest and popularity as the big-screen releases. The Shaggy we all know and love, Matthew Lillard, recently took part in an interview with Toofab, and he spoke of his interest in donning the baggy green tee once again. When asked about an R-rated reboot, Lillard said it "would be a super fun thing to see". Fellow cast member, Freddie Prinze Jr., who portrayed Fred in the duology, didn't quite match this enthusiasm, saying he didn't believe Warner Bros. "have the guts to make that movie".
It's been over 18 years since Monsters Unleashed was released, and the chatter around a third movie still hasn't died down. It seems fans and cast members alike are keen for the original cast to reprise their roles, whether that be in another sequel or a reboot. I guess time will tell, but for now, there's nothing in the pipeline and the movie, unfortunately, seems to be indefinitely canceled.