The first two Scooby-Doo films were absolute cultural phenomenons and they went gangbusters in the box office, so it’s a mystery (no pun intended) why there was no third film.
Welp, turns out there actually was a third instalment that was cooked up but ended up getting axed, and the plot is absolutely fucking bananas.
Let’s start from the beginning: In October 2002, while Scooby-Doo 2 was being filmed, Warner Bros. gave James Gunn (the bloke who would go on to helm the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise) the go-ahead to write and direct the third flick in the almighty franchise.
Here’s the plot of the film, as shared by James Gunn on Twitter:
The Mystery Inc. gang are hired by a town in Scotland who complain they are being plagued by monsters but we discover throughout the film the monsters are actually the victims. Scooby and Shaggy have to come to terms with their own prejudices and narrow belief systems.
I have no idea what that would’ve entailed, and sadly we’ll never know, because the studio pulled the plug on the third Scooby-Doo film due to the heinous reviews of the second flick.
“Although it did well, it didn’t do well enough to warrant a third, so the movie was never made,” James Gunn revealed during an Instagram Q&A.
Despite this, he still speaks fondly of working on the Scooby-Doo flicks. He even credited his work on the two films as being great practice for Guardians of the Galaxy.
“That said it was because I apprenticed as a director on those films I was ready and able to take on Guardians when the time came,” he said.
Big fat bummer that we’ll never see that bonkers plot come to life, but at least we have the first few iconique flicks to cherish forever.
Matty Galea is the Senior Entertainment Editor at Pedestrian who also dabbles in woo-woo stuff like astrology and crystals and has been penning horoscopes since the start of his career. He also Tweets about pop culture and astrology and posts spicy content on Instagram.
