Let’s smash the giant sandwich! The Mystery, Inc. gang has been discovered in Netflix’s live-action Scooby-Doo series.
Variety has revealed that Maxwell Jenkins will play group leader Fred Jones, Tanner Hagen will play Norville “Shaggy” Rogers, and Abbey Ryder Fortson will play Velma Dinkley. They will appear alongside previously announced cast member McKenna Grace, who plays Daphne.
Netflix picked up an untitled “Scooby-Doo” series for eight episodes in March 2025. The official logline describes it as a modern reinterpretation of the popular comic book show.
The logline reads: “During their final summer at camp, old friends Shaggy (Hagen) and Daphne (Grace) become embroiled in a haunting mystery involving a lonely, lost Great Dane puppy who may be a witness to a supernatural murder.” “Along with Velma (Fortson), a down-to-earth, scientific townie, and Freddie (Jenkins), a strange but very handsome new student, they set out to solve a case that draws them into a creepy nightmare that threatens to reveal all their secrets.”
The role marks a return to Netflix for Jenkins, who starred in an earlier Netflix original, Sense8, as well as the streamer’s three-season reboot of Lost in Space. Since then, Jenkins has appeared in shows such as Amazon’s “Reacher” and “The Bondsman,” Apple TV’s “Dear Edward,” and films such as “Joe Bell,” with Mark Wahlberg.
Hagen’s past television credits include shows such as HBO Max’s hit series “The Pit” and Paramount+’s “Rome: Bass Reeves.” He will next appear in the feature film “The Man Who Changed the World.” Hagen is also an excellent singer and dancer and was previously a member of the group ‘FuturePop’.
Fortson recently appeared in the first season of HBO Max’s hit series “The Pit” as Christy Wheeler, a pregnant teen seeking a medical abortion. Early in her career, she appeared in an episode of “The Mindy Project” with series creator Mindy Kaling, and most recently created and stars in the Velma adult animated spinoff series for HBO Max. Fortson’s other TV credits include “Togetherness,” “Transparent” and “Tales From the Loop.” In film, she is known for her roles in two Marvel films, Ant-Man and Is There a God? It’s me, Margaret,” opposite Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates.
Jenkins is repped by Innovative Artists Entertainment, Gilbertson Entertainment and Myman Greenspan. Hagen is repped by CESD Talent Agency, Osbrink Talent Agency, and Treadwell Entertainment. Fortson is repped by TalentWorks, WME and Yorn Levine Burns.
Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg will serve as writers and showrunners, and will also executive produce alongside Andre Nemec and Jeff Pinkner under their Midnight Radio banner. Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Lee London Redman will executive produce through their Berlanti Productions. Toby Haynes will executive produce and direct the first episode. Produced by Warner Bros. Television. Berlanti Productions currently has an overall agreement with WBTV.
This isn’t the first time a live-action Scooby-Doo project has hit the big screen. The most famous is the 2002 live-action film Scooby-Doo, starring Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, and Linda Cardellini, with Neil Fanning providing the voice of Scooby. The film was a commercial success, earning over $250 million worldwide. A sequel, Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed, starring the same cast, was released in 2004 and grossed over $180 million. The live-action television movie Scooby-Doo and its sequel were also released in 2009 and 2010.
There have also been various Scooby-Doo animation projects over the years, starting with the original cartoon series in the late 1960s. Over the years, various anime series and movies have been born.
