Matthew Lillard Is Happy Netflix Is Bringing ‘Scooby-Doo’ Back

After getting its hands on The Addams Family and Avatar: The Last Airbender, Netflix is bringing Scooby-Doo to live-action. Whatever one thinks about that eventual adaptation, it’s gotten a soft seal of approval from franchise alum Matthew Lillard just for existing.

Recently, the longtime Shaggy told Entertainment Weekly he was “really happy†to hear of a new installment, saying the show’s gone years without an animated series and “needs to come back.†To him, it serves a key function as introducing kids to the idea of ghost stories and storytelling overall, and teaches kids important lessons like “friendship and sticking together as a gang and working together to solve mysteries.†And also that “normally it’s a dangerous white man behind a mask. These are the things that kids have to learn.â€

Lillard also used his platform to make a simple requesto to Netflix: let its Scooby-Doo just be Scooby-Doo and not another show wearing its skin. A surprisingly tough ask in recent years, as a self-professed purist, he believes it’d behoove the streamer to “hold onto what’s tried and true and take their hack at it. […] The core of it is really about friendship. It’s really lovely, and I hope that they hold onto that.â€

According to the logline, Shaggy and Daphne are old summer camp friends who team up with Velma and Fred to uncover a potentially supernatural murder, with Scooby as their only witness. Despite being announced as a “modern reimagining,†the potential’s definitely there for Netflix to heed Lillard’s words, but we’ll have to wait for the show to come out to see how the series fares. And if that doesn’t pan out, there’s always the classics and the upcoming anime.

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